Pfizer vaccine gets UK govt’s approval
Roll-out next week with 800,000 doses, says Prime Minister Boris Joshnson
LONDON: The United Kingdom on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), jumping ahead of the United States and Europe, with 800,000 doses due to be rolled out from next week, a development widely welcomed as the “best news in a long time”.
Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted emergency use approval to Pfizer-biontech’s Covid-19 vaccine after a thorough analysis of the data that was submitted to it on a rolling basis, a spokesperson said.
The Pfizer vaccine, which they say is 95% effective in preventing the illness, was approved in record time — just 23 days since the US drugmaker published the first data from its final stage clinical trial.
The usual prolonged process of vaccine development over several years of design, clinical trials and regulatory scrutiny has been speeded up to within 10 months in the case of Covid-19, marking a new phase in the history of global public health.
BORIS JOHNSON,
UK PM
“The government has today accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-biontech’s Covid-19 vaccine for use,” the spokesperson said.
“This follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by
JUNE RAINE,
MHRA CEO
experts at the MHRA who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness… The vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week.”
The vaccine needs to be initially refrigerated at a temperature between minus 70 and minus 80 degrees Celsius -- the sort of temperature typical of an
ALBERT BOURLA,
Pfizer CEO
Antarctic winter -- and administered in two doses, 21 days apart. Since hospitals have the infrastructure, it will be initially given to hospital staff and to vulnerable care-home residents.
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer-biontech vaccine, with 800,000 doses arriving from the com