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London – Great Britain has become the first country in the West to pass a COVID-19 vaccine for public use. The UK Department of Health and Welfare confirmed in a statement to British news agencies that the vaccine jointly developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German BioNTech would be distributed from next week. Pfizer was the first of the three major Western pharmaceutical companies to apply for emergency use authorization in both the United States and Europe.
“The Government has today accepted the recommendation of the Regulatory Agency for Medicines and Health Products (MHRA) to approve the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Assistance told the Association of Great Britain Press. The spokesperson said the emergency use authorization followed “months of rigorous clinical trials and extensive data analysis by MHRA experts who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards for safety, quality and efficacy. “.
In line with planning in the USAFront-line British healthcare workers, nursing home residents, the very old, and people with underlying conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to complications from COVID-19 are expected to receive the first doses of the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine, like the Oxford and Moderna formulas, requires two doses one month apart.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “fantastic news” that the British regulator deemed the first vaccine safe and promised that distribution would start from Monday. He told the BBC Breakfast program that the vaccines “would start with the very elderly and with people in nursing homes.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also praised the news, confirming in a tweet plans to begin distributing doses starting next week.
“It is the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to get our lives back and get the economy moving again,” Johnson said.
Hancock, Britain’s top public health official, pointed to the logistical complexities of distributing the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at temperatures well below freezing, but said Britain would receive its first 800,000 doses next week. and that the vaccine would be distributed after that. at the speed that manufacturing would allow. The UK has a total of 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine on order, enough to fully dose 20 million people.
Two other vaccines, one developed by the US. Modern, which also requires subzero storage, and one made by the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in conjunction with Oxford University, have also applied for emergency use authorization in the US and Europe.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have said that data from large-scale human trials, involving tens of thousands of people, showed that their vaccines are around 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection. AstraZeneca / Oxford found that their vaccine, which works in a different way, was up to 90% effective with a certain dosage regimen. The Oxford-developed vaccine is much cheaper to produce and requires storage at normal refrigerator temperatures.
This marks the first emergency use authorization following a global phase 3 trial of a vaccine to help fight the pandemic, “said Pfizer and BioNTech in a joint statement, adding that they were” anticipating new regulatory decisions around the world in the next days and weeks. and they are ready to administer vaccine doses after possible authorizations or regulatory approvals. “
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called the UK move “a historic moment in the fight against COVID-19.”
None of the human trials of any of the three main vaccines manufactured in the West have found significant adverse effects attributed to their vaccines. Some side effects commonly associated with long-term vaccines, such as injection site pain, fatigue, or headaches were seen in the trial data.
China and Russia have been administering thousands of doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by government-backed research institutes. Unlike the vaccine programs of Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, neither Russia nor China conducted large-scale international human trials with data provided for independent analysis before starting the administration of their vaccines outside of the trial.
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