In world’s first, Pfizer vaccine gets UK nod
PM Boris Johnson says the approval is a global win and a ray of hope amid the gloom of Covid-19
LONDON: The United Kingdom approved a coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday, becoming the first country to green-light an inoculation that has been clinically tested and paving the way for others in what could be the beginning of a long but inevitable end to the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed close to 1.5 million people and upended lives around the world.
Britain’s regulator Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted emergency use approval to the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, which separately said it expects to ship 800,000 doses from its facilities in Belgium as early as next week. The vaccine is likely to be first given to people in elderly care homes, particularly those above 80, and health care staff at hospitals.
“I’m really pleased to say that the UK is now one step closer to providing a safe and effective vaccine to help in the fight against Covid-19 – a virus that has affected each and every one of us in some way – and in helping to save lives,” said June Raine, chief executive of the MHRA, assuring that “no corners were cut” while assessing the data. “We have carried out a rigorous scientific assessment of all the available evidence of quality, safety and effectiveness. The public’s safety has always been at the forefront of our minds – safety is our watchword,” she added.
US company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech were the first to announce that their mRNA platform vaccine has proven effective in preventing coronavirus infections.
The results from their final analysis were announced on November 18, when they said that a trial involving around 44,000 people showed the vaccine had a 95% efficacy rate.
At present, there is no confirmed information about whether Pfizer is in talks with authorities in India for regulatory approval or for purchase orders. “Right now we are in discussions with many governments around the world and remain committed to advance our dialogue and explore opportunities to make this vaccine available for use in India,” a company spokesperson told Hindustan Times adding that Pfizer will “supply this vaccine only through government contracts” for the duration of the pandemic.
India’s hopes of an early access to coronavirus vaccine rest on the candidate developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca, which has in an interim analysis showed an efficacy of 62-90%.
China and Russia have approved mass inoculations of some of their indigenously developed coronavirus vaccines, but scientists have questioned the wisdom of doing so before reading results from large scale clinical trials.