The executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said it needs to know Covid-19 vaccines are "safe, of high quality and effective" before granting approval, but she is hopeful a positive opinion will be delivered before Christmas.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Emer Cooke said the regulator is working hard on approving the vaccines as soon as possible and while it is awaiting full applications from producers "all going well ...
would be hopeful of a positive opinion before Christmas". She said there is a large amount of complicated data that needs to be analysed to ensure a vaccine is safe, in particular in those vaccines using new messenger RNA technology (mRNA) - instructions that direct cells in the body to make proteins