The British authorities allowed the use of a coronavirus vaccine developed by the German company BioNTech and the American concern Pfizer.

The drug has been approved by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Authority (MHRA), and the National Health Service (NHS) is ready to begin vaccinating the population early next week, Health and Human Services Secretary Matt Hancock said on Twitter on Wednesday December 2..

He stressed that the UK became the first country in the world to have a coronavirus vaccine to undergo clinical trials.. "

According to a statement from the Ministry of Health, MHRA experts, after a thorough analysis, concluded that the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine meets " On the BBC, Matt Hancock announced that the UK will receive several million doses of vaccine by the end of this year.

According to BioNTech, the contract with the UK provides for the supply of 40 million doses of vaccine in 2020 and 2021. German company welcomes the world's first approval for its vaccine.

BioNTech and Pfizer's application is also being considered in the EU and the USA According to research results, the effectiveness of BNT162b2 reaches 95%, in the case of people over 65 years of age - more than 94%.

Serious side effects in trial participants, more than 40% of whom are people aged 56 to 85, have not yet been identified.

43.5 thousand people participated in the trials of the BNT162b2 vaccine, about half of whom received a placebo. Of the 170 COVID-19 cases among the participants, only eight are among those who did not receive a placebo. As a result of research, 95% effectiveness of the drug has been proven. Side effects have not yet been noticed, but experts do not exclude that they may appear in the future.. Reported by Deutsche Welle.