London (AFP)
The British Medicines Agency (MHRA) has given the green light to the anti-Covid vaccine developed by the British group AstraZeneca with the University of Oxford, with which the authorities intend to accelerate the vaccination campaign launched in early December.
“The government today accepted the recommendation of the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to allow the use of the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine,” announced Wednesday morning a spokesperson for the Department of Health, making the UK the first country to approve the vaccine cheaper and easier to distribute.
This green light "follows rigorous clinical trials and extensive data analysis by experts from the MHRA, which concluded that the vaccine met its strict standards for safety, quality and efficacy," added this spokesperson in a press release.
The UK has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, on contracts totaling more than 350 million doses by the end of next year, sourcing from seven manufacturers in the early stages. clinical tests.
It is the second vaccine approved by the MHRA, after that of Pfizer / BioNTech inoculated to more than 600,000 people since December 8.
That of AstraZeneca and Oxford is eagerly awaited for practical reasons.
It is much less expensive than the one already distributed and can be stored in conventional freezers without the need for storage at -70 degrees.
One of the countries most affected in Europe by the pandemic with more than 71,000 dead, the United Kingdom is facing a surge in contaminations attributed to a variant of the virus, presenting according to a British study a contagiousness greater than 50% to 74 %.
This phenomenon has prompted the authorities to reconfigure a large part of the population (40% of the population in England, mainland Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
© 2020 AFP