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UK wins global race to approve Covid vaccine |
UK becomes first country to approve Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine, first shots roll out next week
London (CNN)The
United Kingdom has become the first Western nation to approve a
Covid-19 vaccine, a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic that
paves the way for the first doses to be rolled out across the country
next week.
"Help is
on the way," Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Wednesday morning,
after UK regulators granted emergency authorization for a vaccine made
by US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
A final analysis of the Phase 3 trial of Pfizer's vaccine shows it was 95% effective in preventing infections, even in older adults, and caused no serious safety concerns, the company said last month.
The
announcement means the UK has vaulted past the United States and
European Union in the race to approve a vaccine, months into a pandemic
that has killed almost 1.5 million people worldwide. Pfizer CEO Albert
Bourla hailed the emergency authorization as "a historic moment in the
fight against Covid-19."
The UK has
ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine -- enough to vaccinate 20
million people. Hancock told the BBC that an initial 800,000 doses would
be available in the UK next week, and "we'll then deploy it at the
speed that it's manufactured" by Pfizer at its facilities in Belgium.
The bulk of the rollout will come next year.
Elderly people in care homes, along with health workers and other vulnerable people, will be top of the priority list.
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."
How the vaccine will be rolled out
The
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine employs a new approach to making vaccines that
uses a piece of genetic material called messenger RNA to prompt the body
to make synthetic pieces of the coronavirus and stimulate an immune
response. But MRNA is very fragile, so the vaccine must be kept at
ultracold temperatures, meaning special storage equipment is required.
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."
UK
regulators and officials were set to release further details on why
they approved the Pfizer vaccine -- and who gets it first -- later
Wednesday.
"It's according to
clinical need," Hancock told the BBC. "The goal is to save as many lives
as possible and stop hospitalizations."
He
said the rollout would start with the most elderly, people in care
homes and their carers, with NHS staff also high on the priority list.
"And also the clinically extremely vulnerable who we've supported
throughout this crisis, those who are particularly vulnerable to
coronavirus."
It then "essentially comes down the age range," he added.
Hancock
urged Britons to listen to doctors, nurses and "expert voices, those
who've been involved in this program and listen to the independent
regulator."
"They have done the
checks and they know that this is safe and ready ... safe to the high
clinical standards that they require," he said.
'A historic moment'
It
marks the first time that citizens outside of the worldwide clinical
trials will have the opportunity to be immunized against Covid-19,
according to BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin.
"To
aid the success of the vaccination program it is vital everyone
continues to play their part and abide by the necessary restrictions in
their area so we can further suppress the virus and allow the NHS to do
its work without being overwhelmed," a spokesperson from the UK health
department said in a statement.
"The
vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week. The NHS
has decades of experience in delivering large scale vaccination programs
and will begin putting their extensive preparations into action to
provide care and support to all those eligible for vaccination," the
statement added.
"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 UK," Bourla, the Pfizer CEO, said in a
statement.
Sahin added that the
regulatory data was the result of "a scientifically rigorous and highly
ethical research and development program."
Other countries, including the US, are considering approval for various coronavirus vaccines before the end of the year.
BioNTech
and Pfizer submitted their vaccine candidate to the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) in mid-November. They have also submitted to the
EU's European Medicines Agency.
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