EU medicine regulator assessing Covid-19 vaccines affected by cyberattack

Two pharmaceutical companies in line for first conditional approval for their Covid-19 vaccine by the EU’s medicine regulator said Wednesday their documents were “unlawfully accessed” during a cyberattack on a European Medicines Agency server.

Pfizer and BioNTech said documents relating to its vaccine candidate had been accessed but that “no systems have been breached in connection with this incident.”

“We are unaware of any personal data being accessed,” Pfizer said in a statement, while BioNTech added “we are unaware that any study participants have been identified through the data being accessed.”

“The EMA has assured us that the cyberattack will have no impact on the timeline for its review,” they added.