Finns may get coronavirus vaccine by yearend

Experts believe that first batch of coronavirus vaccine could be available in Finnish market by the end of this year, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

“It’s possible that we could still get the vaccine this year, but I still believe it’s more likely that it will take until early next year,” Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) Chief Physician Hanna Nohynek told the Yle.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is scheduled to convene over two Covid-19 vaccines – one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and the other by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Jukka Sallinen of the Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea) told the Yle that the EMA had started a rolling review of the vaccines, meaning the watchdog would carry out assessments of the vaccines as data becomes available.

Manufacturers must usually submit all of their data before reviews can move forward, the Yle report added.

The EMA in a statement said it will complete its assessment according to its usual standards for quality, safety and effectiveness but the process should be shorter than a regular evaluation.

The European Commission ordered 200 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine from German pharmaceutical company BioNTech SE and US company Pfizer.

Earlier, the EC also signed its first deal to purchase up to 300 million vaccines from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

EU member states can purchase the vaccines as per a country quota system and Finland will get a quota of 1.2 per cent of the initial batch.