May 12 (Reuters) - More clinical and real-world data is
needed on how well and for how long COVID-19 vaccines are
protective before any decisions should be made on offering third
or booster doses, Europe's drug regulators said on Wednesday.
Speaking at the first of planned regular fortnightly media
briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, the European Medicines
Agency's head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy
Marco Cavaleri cautioned against making "premature" moves to
deploy booster COVID-19 shots.
"We need to look into real-world evidence ... to give us the
data we need to know when would be the right time to give a
third dose," he said.
"We need to have data that show in the field, either
real-world evidence or clinical trials, that show what is the
level of protection that is retained by the vaccines that we
currently have."
(Reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Ludwig Burger in
Frankfurt, Editing by Catherine Evans)