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By Silke Koltrowitz
ZURICH, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The emergency approval process
being used by some countries to speed up the roll-out of
COVID-19 vaccines is not a legal option in Switzerland, its
medicines agency said on Friday.
"Swissmedic works closely with international partner
authorities and reviews all applications for COVID-19 vaccines
as a matter of urgency and in a 'rolling' procedure," the Swiss
agency for therapeutic products said in a statement.
Swissmedic said it had received additional details from
companies on their COVID-19 vaccines that would enable it to
issue authorisations quickly once sufficient data on safety,
efficacy and quality were available.
However, it added: "An emergency approval for vaccines is
not a legal option in Switzerland," the agency said, ruling out
what it called "premature vaccinations" for the Alpine country.
The world's eyes are on Britain as the first country to
approve and roll out a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and
its partner BioNTech.
Switzerland said this month it had signed a contract with
Pfizer and BioNTech to deliver 3 million doses of their vaccine.
It has also signed agreements with Moderna and
AstraZeneca.
(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz. Editing by Jane Merriman and
Mark Potter)
