European medicines regulator says cyberattack limited to one IT application

FILE PHOTO: Woman holds a vial labelled "COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine" over dry ice in this illustration taken, December 5, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

(Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday that its investigation into a cyberattack had showed the data breach was limited to one IT application.

Data related to COVID-19 medicines and vaccines was the target of a cyberattack earlier this month, and the hackers accessed documents belonging to third parties, the regulator said.

The EMA said it had contacted the companies concerned, but did not name them. (https://bit.ly/37I3fpX)

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said earlier this month that documents related to development of their COVID-19 vaccine had been "unlawfully accessed" in the cyberattack, which was disclosed by the EMA hours earlier.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)