UK Becomes First Country To Approve Pfizer's Coronavirus Vaccine

LONDON (CBS NEWS) — Britain has become the first country in the West to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for public use.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson wearing a face mask because of the coronavirus pandemic leaves number 10 Downing Street in central London on December 2, 2020, to take part in the Prime Minister Question (PMQs) session in the House of Commons. - Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday hailed UK approval for the use of Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine as "fantastic" news that would help life get back to normal. "It's the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again," he said, after regulators gave the green light in a world first. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.K. Department of Health and Social Care confirmed in a statement to British news agencies that the vaccine developed jointly by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech would be distributed starting next week. Pfizer was the first of three major Western pharmaceutical companies to apply in both the U.S. and Europe for emergency use authorization.

"The Government has today accepted the recommendation from the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for use," a Department of Health and Social Care spokesman told the Press Association of Britain. The spokesman said the emergency use authorization followed "months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness."

In line with planning in the U.S., British front-line healthcare workers, care home residents, the very elderly and people with underlying conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 complications are expected to get the first doses of the vaccine. Pfizer's vaccine, like the Oxford and Moderna formulas, requires two doses about a month apart.

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