Published December 11, 2020, 12:17 AM
THE HAGUE/WASHINGTON – Documents related to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were illegally accessed during a cyberattack at the EU regulator, the company said Wednesday, as the United States registered more than 3,000 deaths in 24 hours and Germany and other northern hemisphere countries grappled with a winter surge in the pandemic.
(JANSEN ROMERO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) reported the cyberattack as European countries eagerly await a vaccine, including Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for tougher action against a second wave of COVID-19 that is proving deadlier than the first there.
While the EMA did not give details on the attack, Pfizer and BioNTech said documents relating to their vaccine candidate had been accessed, but that ”no systems have been breached in connection with this incident.”
'Patents should be lifted, technological knowledge shared freely and openly, and no profiteering allowed during this pandemic,' says a virtual petition submitted to the World Trade Organization