London: German biotech firm BioNTech said on Wednesday, local time, that regulation documents related to the COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with Pfizer were “unlawfully accessed” after a cyberattack on Europe’s medicines regulator.
The European Medicines Agency – which is responsible for assessing and approving medicines, medical devices and vaccines for the European Union – said earlier on Wednesday it had been targeted in a cyberattack.
The BioNTech SE Covid-19 production facility in Marburg, Germany.Credit:Bloomberg
BioNTech said: “Today, we were informed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that the agency has been subject to a cyber attack and that some documents relating to the regulatory submission for Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate … had been unlawfully accessed.”
It added that “no BioNTech or Pfizer systems have been breached in connection with this incident and we are unaware of any personal data of study participants being accessed.”
