EMA starts rolling review of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Tuesday it had started a rolling review of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech.

A rolling review is a regulatory tool that the EMA employs to accelerate the assessment of a medicinal drug amid a public health emergency.

The decision was made based on preliminary results from studies that showed that Sinovac's vaccine triggers the production of antibodies targeting the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, the EMA said in a statement.

The EMA will evaluate data as they become available; the rolling review will continue until there is enough evidence for a formal marketing authorization application for the Chinese vaccine, the agency said.