BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The head of the European Union drug regulator said on Thursday the agency’s work on assessing COVID-19 vaccines had not been affected by a cyber attack over the past two weeks.
“We have been subject to a cyber attack over the last couple of weeks,” Emer Cooke told EU lawmakers in a hearing. The agency revealed the cyber attack on Wednesday but did not clarify when it took place.
“I can assure you that this will not affect the timeline for delivery of vaccines and that we are fully functional,” she told lawmakers. The agency has said it will decide on a possible conditional approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 29.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)