The European Union's top official said November 19 that two COVID-19 vaccines could receive conditional market authorisation as early as the second half of December.

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Speaking after a meeting of EU leaders, the European Commission president said the vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer, which created its serum with German drugmaker BioNTech, could be approved by the end of the year by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) if all proceeds now without any problem.

The European Commission president added this is the very first step to be able to be on the market. He said the EMA is in constant contact with the FDA to synchronise the assessment of the vaccines. The European commission has sealed deals with several pharmaceutical companies including BioNTech and Pfizer to buy millions of doses of vaccines on behalf of all EU Member States. He said earlier this week the commission hopes a deal with Moderna will be soon finalised.