Covid-19: UK approves Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, a world first
The UK became the first country to approve Pfizer / BioNTech's vaccine on December 2, 2020 .. Here is an illustrative image taken on November 29, 2020 © Dado Ruvic, Reuters
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories was authorized by the United Kingdom on Wednesday December 2, a first in the world.
The British government has announced that it will be available to its population from "next week", "a historic moment", rejoiced in the wake of the boss of the American Pfizer.
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This is
a world first
.
“
The government today accepted the recommendation of the Independent Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve the use of Pfizer / BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine,
” said a door - speech of the Ministry of Health Wednesday December 2.
“
The vaccine will be available across the UK from next week.
"
Health Minister Matt Hancock congratulated himself with a tweet: "
UK is the first country in the world to have a clinically approved vaccine
."
The vaccine from the American laboratories
Pfizer and German BioNTech was the first to announce its results of
large-scale
tests
in early November,
showing
95%
effectiveness
.
Many more followed.
"
The vaccine meets its strict standards of safety, quality and efficacy
"
This green light from the British authorities "
follows months of rigorous clinical trials and an in-depth analysis of the data by MHRA experts who concluded that the vaccine met its strict standards for safety, quality and efficacy
" , said the spokesperson for the ministry.
"
The NHS is ready to start vaccination early next week
," added Matt Hancock.
Priority people
to receive the vaccine
include residents of nursing homes, caregivers, the elderly and the most vulnerable.
The UK has ordered a total of 40 million doses for 2020 and 2021.
The
boss Albert Bourla, Pfizer
has praised him in a statement a "
historic moment in the fight against Covid-19
."
"
We expect the deployment of the vaccine in the UK to reduce the number of hospitalizations of people at high risk,
" said Ugur Sahin, head of BioNTech.
The EU will or will not give its green light on December 29 "
at the latest
"
England emerges from a four-week lockdown on Wednesday 2 December to return to a regional approach that Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to be able to lift in the spring.
This is thanks to the combined action of vaccines and mass screening.
For its part, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Tuesday that it would hold an extraordinary meeting on December 29 "
at the latest
" to give, or not, its green light to the marketing of the vaccine against the Covid-19 from Pfizer and BioNTech.
(with AFP)
►
See also: The first vaccines against Covid-19 difficult to deploy in India
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