UK poised to become the first western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine

So report the Financial Times, saying the drug regulator in the country is set to grant approval within days. (FT may be gated.)

  • Deliveries of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer would begin within hours of the authorisation
  • first injections could take place from December 7.
  • UK has ordered 40m doses of the two-shot product, which preliminary data found to be more than 95 per cent effective in preventing disease
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has the power to temporarily authorise products, in cases of urgent public need, thus bypassing the normal approval required from the European Medicines Agency (what this means is that while the UK is bound by the European agency until the end of the Brexit transition on December 31 the country still has the power to approve apart from the EU approval, with our without Brexit).
I posted an early leak of approval soon back on Friday, but that was re the Oxford-Astra product.
So report the Financial Times, saying the drug regulator in the country is set to grant approval within days. (FT may be gated.)