The CSL team is working in the laboratory on November 8, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia, where it will begin manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca-Oxford University.
Darrian Traynor | Getty Images
LONDON – The UK drug regulator approved Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday for emergency use in the country.
It is the third injection authorized in Britain, after previous approvals for vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech and the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.
In a statement, the country’s Health Department said the Modern vaccine meets the “strict standards for safety, efficacy and quality” of the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency.
He added that the UK ordered 10 million extra doses of the vaccine, totaling 17 million. They should be available from spring.
The MHRA authorized the Moderna vaccine after months of rigorous clinical trials involving tens of thousands of people, the statement said. He added that it is 94% effective in preventing Covid, including in the elderly.
“This is another great news and another weapon in our arsenal to tame this terrible disease,” said Secretary of Health and Welfare Matt Hancock in a statement.
The UK has already vaccinated about 1.5 million people and Hancock said Friday’s approval would allow the country to further accelerate its vaccination program.
Britain reported almost 2.9 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 78,600 related deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The country is currently struggling with a new strain of the virus that is more transmissible and, on Thursday, reported Covid’s second highest number of daily deaths, 1,162.