In world first, UK approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

In world first, UK approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Britain approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, jumping ahead of the United States and Europe to become the West's first country to formally endorse a jab it said should reach the most vulnerable people early next week. Guy Faulconbridge, Paul Sandle U.S.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, jumping ahead of the United States and Europe to become the West’s first country to formally endorse a jab it said should reach the most vulnerable people early next week.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson touted the medicine authority’s approval as a global win and a ray of hope amid the gloom of the novel coronavirus which has killed nearly 1.5 million people globally, hammered the world economy and upended normal life.

Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) granted emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which they say is 95% effective in preventing illness, in record time - just 23 days since Pfizer published the first data from its final stage clinical trial.

The world’s big powers have been racing for a vaccine for months to begin the long road to recovery, and getting there first may be seen as a coup for Johnson’s government, which has faced criticism over its handling of the crisis.

“It’s fantastic,” Johnson said. “The vaccine will begin to be made available across the UK from next week. It’s the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again.”

The approval of a jab for use almost exactly a year since the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, is a triumph for science, Pfizer boss Albert Bourla and his German biotechnology partner BioNTech.

But the breakneck speed at which approval was given drew criticism from Brussels where, in an unusually blunt statement, the European Union’s drugs regulator said its longer procedure to approve vaccines was more appropriate as it was based on more evidence and required more checks. ...