UK authorized Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be available next week

The UK has become the first country in the world to support the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. Health Minister Matt Hancock announced on Wednesday that the UK's medicines administrative agency has given its support to the vaccine and the NHS would be ready to start using it early next week.

The news comes as three candidate vaccines have published encouraging results from phase three trials in the past month.

The two groups published this month from preliminary results that the vaccine is 95% effective and is 94% efficient in people over the age of 65 who are more at risk of developing severe COVID-19.

“The Emergency Use Authorisation in the UK will sign the first time citizens outside of the experiments will have the possibility to be immunised to the coronavirus,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of German company BioNTech.

“We believe that the roll-out of the vaccination schedule in the UK will reduce the number of people in the high-risk group being hospitalised," Sahin added in a statement.

The two companies currently have an agreement with the UK to provide 40 million doses of the vaccine in 2020 and 2021.

Regulatory agencies in the EU and the US are also reviewing the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and could authorise it for emergency use this month.

The EU has secured a deal with the companies for 300 million doses.

Pfizer and BioNTech have said that they have the capacity to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion portions of the vaccine in 2021.

The vaccine orders two doses received about three weeks apart.

The mRNA vaccine is based on new technology that holds genetic instructions that help the body to recognise the coronavirus' spike protein, which is used to enter the body's cells.