BRIEF—EMA backed 92 human medicines for approval in 2021

In 2021, the European Medicines Agency recommended 92 medicines for marketing authorization. Of these, 53 had a new active substance which had never been authorized in the European Union (EU) before.

This is a 35% increase compared to the 39 medicines with a new active substance that were authorized in 2020.

The overview of key recommendations in 2021 published today includes figures on the authorization of medicines and a selection of new treatments that represent significant progress in their therapeutic areas.

COVID-19 was a key priority for the EMA in 2021: The Agency recommended four vaccines and five treatments for COVID-19.

A lot of effort was dedicated to scaling up vaccine manufacturing capacity and supply.

Throughout the year, the EMA approved 33 new manufacturing sites for COVID-19 vaccines, leading to a substantial increase in vaccine manufacturing capacity and supply.