Yahoo Finance Britain gears up for rollout of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
Britain is preparing to be the first country to roll out the Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) vaccine this week, as shots will be made available in hospitals from Tuesday.
It will later be distributed to doctors’ clinics, the government said on Sunday.
It is the first time a vaccine based on revolutionary messenger RNA technology has ever been approved by a regulator.
The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on the 2 December its decision was “based on a rolling submission, including data from the Phase 3 clinical study, which demonstrated a vaccine efficacy rate of 95%.”
The NHS is to give top priority to vaccinating those aged 80 and above. Frontline healthcare workers, care home staff and residents will also be among those first in line.
The UK ordered 40 million doses in total, enough to inoculate 20 million people, under a third of the total population of 67 million.
Reuters reported that around 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week.
NHS England has written to GP surgeries, telling them to get ready to start giving vaccinations through local doctors’ services from 14 December.
READ MORE: UK approval of world’s first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine sparks hope of a drug revolution
Some logistical challenges await the government and health services. Not only is this the most crucial vaccine rollout in recent history, the shot needs to be stored at -70C.
BioNTech has said that keeping it at -70C is only necessary for long-term storage over many months. It can be kept in the delivery thermoboxes at vaccine centres for up to 20 days and stored in a normal fridge for up to five days.
Each vial contains five doses, diluted with saline solution, which is “more than enough” to vaccinate five people, the company said. They must be used within six hours of opening.
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