UK clears Pfizer Covid Shot for first vaccinations next week

UK became the first Western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, courtesy of its regulator Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE shot ahead of decisions in the United States and the European Union.

The emergency clearance paves the way for the deployment of a vaccine that Pfizer and its German partner say is 95% effective in preventing the disease. The photo will be available in Great Britain of the next week.

“This will be one of the biggest civilian projects in history,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a radio interview, with 50 hospitals preparing to administer the vaccine and 800,000 doses ready to be administered. be delivered from Belgium.

BioNTech’s US certificates of deposit rose 8% at the start of trading in Germany.

The UK had said it would move quickly to approve a vaccine, and medics across the country have been put on hold for a possible deployment. For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the deployment could offer political respite after eight months of criticism of its pandemic strategy, as the death toll in Britain approaches 60,000.

“We can see the way out, and we can see that in the spring we’re going to go through that,” Hancock told Sky News.

But first, the government must deliver vaccines efficiently across the country and its erratic record in pandemic logistics is one of the reasons often cited as to why the UK has the highest death toll in Europe. Another complication is that a Brexit trade deal has yet to be signed and the end of the transitional arrangements could disrupt supply chains at the start of the year.

The UK regulator, drugs and Health care The Product Regulatory Agency said on Wednesday that the vaccine “meets its strict standards for safety, quality and efficacy.” Pfizer, with Moderna Inc. and the Partner of the University of Oxford, AstraZeneca Plc, has sprinted with the aim of delivering coronavirus vaccines in record time.

EU Application

Pfizer and BioNTech applied for regulatory approval for their vaccine in the European Union earlier this week, setting the stage for potential approval there before the end of the year. In the United States, a group from the Food and Drug Administration is due to meet on December 10 to discuss the vaccine.

China has authorized its three pioneers for emergency use. Russia cleared a vaccine known as Sputnik V in August, while a second inoculation was approved in October, even as the final stage of testing to establish safety and efficacy is still underway.

A successful vaccine rollout, along with a possible stabilization of U.S.-China trade relations, will help the global economy accelerate 4.9% in 2021 after declining about 4% this year , according to Bloomberg Economics.

For the UK, which is suffering one of the worst declines among advanced countries this year, the vaccine could be a game-changer as well. Bloomberg Economics expects UK gross domestic product to fall 11.4% this year, the deepest contraction in 300 years, followed by 6% growth in 2021.

The UK government invoked a special rule at the end of November allowing its medicines regulator to move forward on the EU as the country prepares for the Brexit transition period which will end at the end of this year.

Cover paris

UK has agreed to buy more than 350 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine

Source: Duke Global Health Innovation Center, Bloomberg data

The UK still needs more vaccines to reach the finish line in order to vaccinate enough of its population to end the pandemic. The country has ordered enough doses of two injections of Pfizer-BioNTech to incubate 20 million people, or less than a third of the population. While the companies have said they can produce 1.3 billion doses next year, much of that supply is already mentioned in deals to ship hundreds of millions of doses to Europe, the United States. , in Japan and elsewhere.

This approval also marks the first time that a messenger RNA vaccine has hit the market. The new technology essentially turns the body’s cells into tiny vaccine-making machines, instructing cells to make copies of the advanced coronavirus protein, which stimulates the production of protective antibodies.

Vaccine race

Countries hedge their bets by reserving various shooting candidates

Source: Duke Global Health Innovation Center, Bloomberg data

The Pfizer-BioNTech firing rushed to the lead after delays in trials of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which also showed promising signs in preliminary results from large studies. The UK partners faced questions after recognizing that a lower dosage level that appeared to be more effective was the result of a manufacturing gap.

– With the help of Alaa Shahine, Tim Ross and Corinne Gretler

(Updates with political impact in the fifth paragraph, economic effect in the 11th, 12th paragraphs)