First Batch Of Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccines Arrives In The UK
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The first batch of a Covid-19 vaccine has been approved by the UK Government and has made its way to the UK.
This announcement from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) comes less than two weeks after joint vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and BioNTech reported that they had requested emergency use authorisations for a Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
The United Kingdom ordered 40 million doses, which due to the two-dose system of the vaccination is enough to innoculate 20 million people, and were the first country in the world to approve the vaccine.
The rapid development, testing and approval of the vaccine is a case study in life science consulting for how to respond to a pandemic on a global scale.
The next step after approval is distribution, and whilst there is a priority list, that may be complicated by the storage requirements of the vaccine. It needs to be stored at -70 degrees Celcius, which means the first vaccinations will take place in hospitals with medical freezers.
The first priority group is believed to be older adult care home residents, their carers with everyone over 80 and frontline workers in health and social care next in line. Given the storage requirements, it is possible these groups will overlap.
After this is everyone over 75, everyone over seventy or are considered extremely vulnerable, everyone aged over 65, everyone under this age with underlying health conditions, and then will continue in decrements of five.
The virus is taken in two doses, 21 days apart, with the immunity building from the 12th day and is complete by the 28th day after inoculation.