Vaccine documents hacked as West grapples with virus surge

Documents related to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were illegally accessed during a cyberattack at the EU regulator, the company said on Dec. 9, as Germany and other northern hemisphere countries grappled with a winter surge in the pandemic.

The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) reported the cyberattack as European countries eagerly await a vaccine, including Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for tougher action against a second wave of COVID-19 that is proving deadlier than the first there.

While the EMA did not give details on the attack, Pfizer and BioNTech said documents relating to their vaccine candidate had been accessed, but that "no systems have been breached in connection with this incident."

The EMA has promised to reach a decision on conditional approval for Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine by December 29, with a ruling on Moderna's version to follow by January 12.

Canada on Dec. 9 became the latest nation to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a day after Britain gave out the first approved vaccine jabs in the Western world.

The United States is expected to follow suit within days, after a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel meets on the issue on Dec. 10.

But a top government scientist said the FDA would probably ask people with a known history of severe allergies not to take it - after two health care workers in Britain needed treatment for allergic reactions.

The cyberattack comes after Britain accused Kremlin-linked hackers in July of targeting labs researching coronavirus vaccines and after a U.S. newspaper reported that cybercriminals had tried to attack several pharmaceutical firms developing vaccines.

They included Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, AstraZeneca and...