THL denies info of coronavirus vaccine arrival in Finland

The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) on Wednesday denied the earlier claim by a Director of the Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) that the first consignment of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech has arrived in Finland, reported national broadcaster Yle .

Lasse Lehtonen, Director Diagnostic Services of the HUS earlier on the day told Yle that a significant amount of the vaccine were delivered to the HUS and now they awaiting for approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and HUS Pharmacy also denied the information regarding the arrival of first consignment of the vaccine.

"Yes, there must be some misunderstanding here. I also confirmed the matter with Pfizer and HUS Pharmacy," THL's Director of Pharmaceutical Wholesale Toni Relander told Yle.

The Chief Executive Officer of HUS Pharmacy, Kerstin Carlsson confirmed that the information given by Lehtonen regarding the arrival of vaccines was not correct.

"We do not have any coronavirus vaccines as yet, not even a sample batch," said the Yle report, quoting Carlsson as saying.

Lehtonen also later said that the earlier information given by him was based on a misunderstanding, the Yle report added.

Earlier, the European Medicines Agency on Tuesday announced it would bring forward its evaluation of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine by eight days to 21 December, slating it before, rather than after Christmas, reported EFE-EPA.

The EMA, whose experts will advise whether or not the European Union should approve market authorization for the vaccine, said its human medicines committee had been working “intensively over the past weeks to evaluate data submitted by BioNTech and Pfizer.”

“The rate of progress is reliant on a robust and complete assessment of the quality, safety and efficacy and is determined by availability of additional information from the company to respond to questions raised during the evaluation,” it added in a statement.