A jointly-developed COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech could get UK approval this week, according to a report.
A jointly-developed COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech could get regulatory approval from UK this week, even before the United States authorized it, according to a report.
Citing government sources, the Telegraph news site on Sunday reported that British regulators were about to begin a formal appraisal of the COVID-19 vaccine — jointly developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE — and that the National Health Service (NHS) had been told to be ready to administer the said vaccine by December 1, 2020.
The Food and Drug Administration in the United States (US FDA) on Friday said that it would meet on December 10 in order to discuss whether to authorize the said vaccine.
The UK Department of Health on Sunday had no comment on when the first COVID-19 vaccinations would be administered.
A spokesperson said that the authorization process by the medical regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), was independent of the government and would take as long as they needed to review the final data from Pfizer.
“An enormous amount of planning has taken place to ensure our health service stands ready to roll out a COVID-19 vaccine,” the spokesperson also said.
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Last week, Britain had formally asked MHRA to assess the suitability of the jointly-developed COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech
Britain had also ordered 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and expected to have 10 million doses – enough to protect 5 million people – available by the end of the year if medical regulators approved it.
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