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 Boris Johnson’s government, which has already ordered 100 million
doses of the vaccine, has jumped ahead of other Western countries
with its vaccination programme.
It was the first to approve a shot developed by Pfizer of the United
States and Germany's BioNTech, with the result that hundreds of
thousands of people were vaccinated in Britain before European Union
countries and the United States even began administering it this
month.
The AstraZeneca/Oxford shot, unlikely to be approved for some time
by EU or U.S. regulators, will start being administered on Monday,
beginning with those most at risk from COVID-19.
While the approval by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is a vindication for a shot seen as
essential for mass immunisations in the developing world as well as
in Britain, it does not eliminate questions about trial data that
make it unlikely to be approved so rapidly in the European Union or
the United States.
Uncertainty has swirled over the most effective dosing pattern for
the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine since it released data last month
showing a 90% success rate for a half-dose followed by a full dose,
but only 62% - still usually more than enough for regulators - for
two full doses.
The MHRA said that the results for the half-dose regimen had not
been borne out by analysis. Instead, it approved the regimen of two
full doses.
An official involved in the MHRA decision, said that the vaccine's
effectiveness had risen when the doses were given three months
apart.
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 "Effectiveness was high, up to
80%, when there was a three- month interval
between first and second doses, which is the
reason for our recommendation," Munir Pirmohamed,
Chair of the Commission on Human medicines
expert Working Group on COVID-19 vaccines, told
reporters.
Hancock said hundreds of thousands of doses
would be available to administer next week in
Britain.
"The NHS (National Health Service) will be able
to deliver these shots into people's arms at the
speed at which it can be manufactured," Health
Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News.
"I am also now, with this approval this morning, highly confident
that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by the spring
that we can now see our route out of this pandemic."
Crucially for countries with relatively basic health infrastructure,
the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine can be stored and transported under
normal refrigeration, rather than supercooled to -70 degrees Celsius
(-94 Fahrenheit).
India is keen to start administering the new shot next month; Serum
Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest producer of vaccines,
has already made about 50 million doses. Chile is also interested.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Paul Sandle in London, additional
reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru, Kate Kelland in London,
John Miller in Zurich, Emilio Parodi in Milan; editing by Guy
Faulconbridge and Kevin Liffey)
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