UK becomes first country to approve Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use

Britain became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine today for use and said that it will be rolled out from early next week. The British regulator Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) declared that the vaccine offers protection of up to 95 per cent and is safe to be used for immunisation against Covid-19.

 

According to a media statement, the Government has accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine for use. The vaccine will be made available across



the UK from next week.

 

The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech last month concluded phase 3 study of their mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b2, meeting all primary efficacy endpoints.

 

The UK has ordered up to 40 million doses of the vaccine, which is being organised to vaccinate 20 million people with two shots each. Immunisation is expected to start within days and will be delivered to high-priority groups first. The company expects to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.