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A healthcare worker injects a patient with the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine during the phase 3 trial in Turkey in October.
- US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech have developed the world’s first effective coronavirus vaccine in record time.
- The UK’s independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said the vaccine works against Covid-19 and is safe.
- Pfizer and BioNTech began developing the experimental intake in March. Vaccine research typically takes several years.
- It is now authorized for emergency use in the UK, which means that the UK government can inject the British.
- Vaccine pioneers AstraZeneca and Moderna have submitted test data for their Covid-19 vaccines to regulators, but it has not been approved.
- Visit the Business Insider SA home page for more stories.
The UK has become the first Western country to officially have a new coronavirus vaccine, marking a potential exit route from the pandemic. And it happened in record time.
The vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German small biotech BioNTech can be used in the UK, after the UK’s independent regulatory body, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the vaccine..
News was confirmed by Matt Hancock, UK Secretary of State for Health.
He said: “The MHRA has formally licensed the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19. The NHS is set to start vaccinating early next week. The UK is the first country in the world to have a clinically approved vaccine for the supply”.
The MHRA said Pfizer’s vaccine protects against Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and is safe, after it reviewed all the vaccine data, including from a large late-stage clinical trial of 43,661 volunteers.
Pfizer presented the data to regulators on Nov. 23, after it announced preliminary results that its vaccine was 95% effective.
The change in the MHRA has been unusually rapid, and regulators in other countries, including the US FDA, the European Medicines Agency, and authorities in Canada, Japan and Australia, continue to scrutinize the data.
However, this has not compromised a thorough evaluation and ensuring the safety of the vaccine, the MHRA said.
“Safety is our keyword,” MHRA Executive Director Dr. June Raine said in a statement.
Pfizer’s vaccine is the result of a new mRNA technology, which uses genetic material to stimulate the immune system and protect it against coronavirus infection. Regulatory approval in the UK marks a milestone for Pfizer, but also for other vaccine manufacturers, such as Moderna, who also use mRNA technology – it indicates that similar vaccines could also work safely and effectively.
Pfizer and BioNTech plan to deliver 50 million doses worldwide by the end of 2020, and production will increase to produce more than 1 billion in 2021.
The UK government said it “is ready” to start immunizing the most vulnerable Britons, having pre-ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer injection, enough for about a third of the population. Supply chains to get the vaccine to those who need it are already in place and include designated “hubs” that can store the vaccine, requiring ultra-low temperatures for shipment, and then it can be stored for up to 5 days in a refrigerator. normal for vaccines.
To end the pandemic, approximately 80% of the world’s population vaccine must be immunized.
“Finding a vaccine is not going to end the pandemic overnight, but we are hopeful that we are one step closer to defeating this terrible virus,” said UK Commerce Secretary Alok Sharma.
The vaccine is given in two injections, two weeks apart, and experts have already raised concerns about the possibility of people coming back for the second injection, especially if they have side effects.
Scientists are also in the unusual position of learning about a disease while creating vaccines against it; they are still investigating how long the vaccine’s protection lasts and whether additional injections will be required. It is also unclear whether it prevents people from transmitting the virus to others.
Above all, we don’t know how well the Pfizer vaccine will work in real life. However, tracking its use in millions of people is the only way to find out. And there is an added benefit that this knowledge could be applied to other harmful diseases.
“Very soon the question ‘Why only Covid?’ it will come, “Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, told a Goldman Sachs health conference. “If we prove that vaccines can be done in less than a year, that’s fine, why can’t we do it with other drugs, with anticancer drugs?
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