BREAKING: In World First, U.K. Approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine

Photo: Reuters

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.

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.

British leaders said that, while they would love to get a jab themselves, priority had to be given to those most in need - the elderly, those in care homes and health workers.

Britain's medicines regulator approved the vaccine in record time by doing a "rolling" concurrent analysis of data and the manufacturing process while Pfizer raced to conclude trials.

"No corners have been cut," Britain's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) chief June Raine said in a televised briefing from Downing Street, adding that the first data on the vaccine had been received in June and undergone a rigorous analysis to international standards. "Safety is our watchword."

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