UK Approves A Coronavirus Vaccine, The First Western Nation To Do So

The New York Times: U.K. Approves Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine, A First In The West 
Britain gave emergency authorization on Wednesday to Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, leaping ahead of the United States to become the first Western country to allow mass inoculations against a disease that has killed more than 1.4 million people worldwide. The decision kicked off a vaccination campaign with little precedent in modern medicine, encompassing not only ultracold dry ice and trays of glass vials but also a crusade against anti-vaccine misinformation. (Mueller, 12/2)

CNN: Pfizer Vaccine: UK Becomes First Western Country To Approve Covid 19 Vaccine For General Use 
"Help is on the way," Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Wednesday morning, after UK regulators granted emergency authorization for a vaccine made by US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. (Reynolds and Isaac, ... Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the news as "fantastic" in a tweet, adding that "it's the protection of vaccines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again." (Reynolds and Isaac, 12/2)

Stat: U.K. Approves Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine, Putting Pressure On FDA
The vaccine is also the first to run the gauntlet of clinical studies normally required for approval. Russia and China have authorized vaccines without Phase 3 clinical trial data. The fact that the U.K. approved a vaccine developed by an American company — in partnership with a German one — before the United States could pour fuel on the already tense relationship between President Trump and the FDA, which has taken a more deliberative process in reviewing vaccine data. (Herper, 12/2)

USA Today: UK Authorizes Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use
Two doses, three weeks apart, are required for protection and one of the distribution challenges is that the vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures. The U.K. government said frontline health care workers and nursing home residents, followed by older adults, will be prioritized for vaccination. (Hjelmgaard, 12/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Pfizer And BioNTech’s Covid-19 Vaccine Wins U.K. Authorization 
The U.K. has ordered 40 million doses, enough to vaccinate 20 million people. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday the country is expecting an initial 800,000 doses to arrive in Britain next week. He said the speed at which vaccinations will take place will depend on how quickly the shot can be manufactured at a plant in Belgium, but the government is expecting “many millions” of doses by the end of the year. (Pancevski, Strasburg and Hopkins, 12/2)

In related news about the COVID vaccine in the United Kingdom and European Union —

Bloomberg: The U.K. Has Approved a Vaccine. Here’s What Happens Next
Now that Britain has become the first western country to approve a Covid-19 shot, the spotlight shifts to the high-stakes rollout. Vaccinating the country’s roughly 67 million people won’t happen overnight. The U.K. has ordered enough doses of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to immunize 20 million people. Who will get the vaccine first? The government will prioritize as it begins to deploy the vaccine, starting with residents and staff in care homes, then moving to people over 80 years old and health-care workers, documents show. (Paton and Kresge, 12/2)

AP: EU Eyes Dec 29 Approval For 1st Virus Vaccine, Later Than US
The European Union drug agency said Tuesday it may need four more weeks to approve its first coronavirus vaccine, even as authorities in the United States and Britain continue to aim for a green light before Christmas. The European Medicines Agency plans to convene a meeting by Dec. 29 to decide if there is enough safety and efficacy data about the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for it to be approved. The regulator also said it could decide as early as Jan. 12 whether to approve a rival shot by American pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc, which submitted its request to U.S. and European regulators this week. (Jordans, Cheng and Petrequin, 12/1)

The Wall Street Journal: How A Couple’s Quest To Cure Cancer Led To The West’s First Covid-19 Vaccine 
For BioNTech’s founders, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, the husband-and-wife team behind the successful endeavor, it was the outcome of three decades of work, starting long before the coronavirus first appeared in humans last winter. When the pandemic broke out, Dr. Sahin had spent years studying mRNA, genetic instructions that can be delivered into the body to help it defend itself against viruses and other threats. In January, days before the illness was first diagnosed in Europe, he used this knowledge to design a version of the vaccine on his home computer. (Pancevski, 12/2)