Pfizer and BioNTech SE believe that the first deliveries of their coronavirus vaccine could be available to NHS workers in the UK later this month.
File photo of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Photo credits: AP)
The UK is likely to approve the Pfizer and BioNTech SE coronavirus vaccine by next week. Reports suggest that National Health Service (NHS) workers in Great Britain could be vaccinated from December 7.
With a 95 percent efficacy rate, Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine has emerged as a promising candidate. Britain has already placed an order for 40 million doses of the vaccine and will likely receive the first deliveries on December 7 if all goes according to plan.
On November 20, the UK had asked its medical regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to evaluate Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine. Additionally, the MHRA is also in the process of determining whether the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine “meets rigorous safety standards.”
A ‘genetic type’ vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech’s experimental Covid-19 entered phase 3 clinical trials in July this year.
If UK regulators grant an emergency use authorization in this regard, this will pave the way for the first launch of such vaccines anywhere in the world.
Similarly, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel priced the Covid-19 vaccine at $ 25-27 earlier this week.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday assigned Junior Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi overseeing the deployment of Covid-19 vaccines in the UK. Reports now suggest that NHS workers will receive the vaccine in the first installment of vaccinations in Britain.
With more than 16 lakh of confirmed cases across the country, Covid-19 has claimed 58,127 lives in the UK to date. In fact, the British government has designed a three-tier system to classify hotspots into three tiers based on the severity of the outbreak in that particular area.
