The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday it will convene a meeting on December 29 to decide if there is enough data about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for it to be approved. The agency also said it could decide as early as January 12 whether to approve a rival vaccine developed by Moderna Inc.

The German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer said earlier on Tuesday that they had asked the regulator for speeded-up, conditional approval of their vaccine, concluding the rolling review process they initiated with the agency on October 6.