The United Kingdom has granted emergency approval for Pfizer‘s coronavirus vaccine today, making it the first western country to start mass distribution of an eagerly-anticipated immunization, which it intends to start dispersing as soon as next week.
According to CNN, Britain‘s quick approval could increase pressure on U.S. regulators to approve the vaccine. The New York-based drug company Pfizer is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after filing for emergency use authorization last month, pending a hearing set for Dec. 10th.
Health care workers in Britain will begin administering the first 800,000 doses by next week in mass vaccination centers set up by the country’s military.
Pfizer and BioNTech, a German biotech company that helped develop the vaccine, have hailed the authorization as a historic moment. Only China and Russia have approved coronavirus vaccines – but they did so without the results of large-scale efficacy testing.
“The emergency use authorization in the U.K. will mark the first time citizens outside of the trials will have the opportunity to be immunized against COVID-19,” BioNTech CEO Dr. Ugar Sahin said in a statement.
U.S. regulators are facing heavy criticism for being slow to approve the vaccine for public usage. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was summoned to the White House earlier this week to explain why the approval process is taking so long.
