Wed 02 December 2020:
Britain on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use and said that it will be rolled out early next week.
“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 government was cited by Reuters as saying.
“The vaccine will be made available across the U.K. from next week,” it said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the program would begin early next week. Hospitals, he said, were already ready to receive it.
“It is very good news,” Hancock said, according to Reuters.
Pfizer said Britain’s emergency use authorization marks a historic moment in the fight against COVID-19.
“This authorization is a goal we have been working toward since we first declared that science will win, and we applaud the MHRA for their ability to conduct a careful assessment and take timely action to help protect the people of the U.K.,” said CEO Albert Bourla, as cited by Reuters.
In a statement, the health department said the approval “follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)] who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.
“The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will shortly publish its latest advice for the priority groups to receive the vaccine, including care home residents, health and care staff, the elderly and the clinically extremely vulnerable.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the news as “fantastic” in a tweet, adding that “it’s the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again.”
Speaking to Sky News, Hancock said there would be “a combination of three modes of delivery.” The first will be hospitals, with 50 set up to handle the vaccine and waiting to receive doses. This will be followed by vaccination centers, which he said were being set up now, before a “community rollout” including doctors’ offices and pharmacists.
But he noted the need for the Pfizer vaccine to be stored at minus-70 degree Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit) temperatures — unlike Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which has not yet been approved.
“They’ll [doctors and pharmacists] also be there should the AstraZeneca vaccine be approved, because that doesn’t have these cold storage requirements and so is operationally easier to roll out, but I just want to thank all of the scientists at BioNTech and Pfizer, who are manufacturing this who we’ve worked so closely with.”FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
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