The drug regulator of the European Union met on Wednesday to discuss the authorisation of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. The bloc was been receiving a lot of flak for the slow vaccine rollout. Europe is lagging behind the United States, Britain and Israel in terms of giving vaccine jabs to its citizens.

The approval of a second vaccine after Pfizer-BioNTech’s got the green light in December would be a shot in the arm for Europe.

The Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency brought forward an initial meeting on Moderna’s vaccine to Monday but it proved inconclusive, with the EMA calling for more information.

“The meeting of EMA’s human medicines committee to discuss COVID-19 vaccine Moderna has started. We will communicate the outcome,” the EMA said on Twitter on Wednesday.

The agency said Tuesday that “our experts are working hard to clarify all outstanding issues with the company”.