UK poised to be first to approve Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine

London: The UK is poised to become the first country to approve Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine, ahead of a long line of countries waiting for protection from the coronavirus.

Clearance is possible as soon as early next week, according to a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified because the process is confidential.

The UK had long signalled it would move fast on any promising vaccine candidate. Russia and China have cleared vaccines for general use, but they’re unlikely to be adopted in the US and Europe.


British doctors were put on standby for a possible rollout before Christmas. The government invoked a special rule allowing the UK drug regulator to bypass its European Union counterpart as the country prepares for the Brexit transition period to conclude at the end of this year. And the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency started its own accelerated review.

Earlier this week, the MHRA said it had the data it needed to assess whether the Pfizer vaccine meets required standards and would “make a decision in the shortest time possible, without compromising the thoroughness of our review.” The shot was 95% effective in a clinical trial of almost 44,000 people, with no significant safety problems so far. On Saturday, an MHRA spokesperson declined to comment. A BioNTech representative didn’t immediately have a comment. Pfizer said in a statement that it doesn’t speculate on how long the review process will last or how it will end.

Vaccine Minister

The first injections could take place from Dec. 7, the Financial Times reported earlier. The news that the UK could approve a vaccine comes as Nadhim Zahawi, a junior minister for the Department of Business, was appointed as minister overseeing the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.

The UK has ordered enough doses of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to immunise 20 million people, though that volume almost certainly won't be available right away.