{"id":117308,"date":"2020-11-20T21:30:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T18:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/uk-asks-regulator-to-study-pfizer-biontech-vaccine\/"},"modified":"2020-11-20T21:30:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T18:30:01","slug":"uk-asks-regulator-to-study-pfizer-biontech-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/uk-asks-regulator-to-study-pfizer-biontech-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"#UK asks regulator to study Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#UK asks regulator to study Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The British government on Friday said it has asked its independent medicines regulator to study Pfizer\/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine with a view to an imminent roll-out.\n <\/p>\n

The announcement came after the pharma giant and its German partner said they will ask US regulators for emergency use authorisation for the vaccine in what would be a major step towards fighting back against the global pandemic.<\/p>\n

In another potential boost, a UK study indicated individuals infected with coronavirus are unlikely to catch the illness again for at least six months.<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had formally asked the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to assess the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine for its suitability.<\/p>\n

If app<\/a>roval was given, the vaccine would be free “at the point of delivery” across the UK from the country’s state-run National Health Service (NHS).<\/p>\n

The service would be ready to start a mass vaccination programme next month if the MHRA gave its agreement on the jab, he told a news<\/a> conference.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2014one of the world’s most-affected countries by the outbreak with more than 54,000 deaths from 1.4 million cases\u2014has ordered 40 million doses.<\/p>\n

Short-term protection<\/b><\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Oxford said its large-scale study into COVID-19 re-infection had produced promising results.<\/p>\n

The study was launched after observations from healthcare professionals that re-infection was relatively rare.<\/p>\n

“We can be confident that, at least in the short term, most people who get COVID-19 won’t get it again,” said Oxford University Professor David Eyre, one of the authors.<\/p>\n

The authors highlighted they had not yet gathered enough data to make a judgement on re-infection after six months.<\/p>\n

However, the ongoing study has an end goal of verifying how long protection lasts in total. <\/p>\n

The director of infection prevention and control at study partners Oxford University Hospitals (OUH), Katie Jeffery, called the finding “exciting”.<\/p>\n

It indicated “that infection with the virus provides at least short-term protection from re-infection”, she added.<\/p>\n

Antibody response<\/b><\/p>\n

US biotech firm Moderna announced this week its vaccine candidate was nearly 95 percent effective in a trial\u2014a week after similar results were announced by Pfizer and BioNTech.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the Oxford study saying the findings extended its understanding of coronavirus protection.<\/p>\n

“We really commend the researchers for doing those studies,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva, explaining the findings had delivered the “best data”.<\/p>\n

Ryan added the antibody response detailed in the research gave “hope for longer periods of protection” from vaccine candidates. <\/p>\n

The Oxford study into re-infection drew on data from regular coronavirus testing of 12,180 health care workers at OUH over a period of 30 weeks.<\/p>\n

It found that none of the 1,246 staff with coronavirus antibodies developed a symptomatic infection.<\/p>\n

Three members of staff with antibodies did test positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 but were all well and did not develop symptoms.<\/p>\n

The WHO said it is working with 50 countries where studies on antibody responses in different groups, such as in the general<\/a> population or among healthcare workers, were taking place.<\/p>\n

The UN health body said it was pooling those results to give a broader picture of how the pandemic was developing.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n UK asks regulator to study Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine (2020, November 20)
\n retrieved 21 November 2020
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2020-11-uk-pfizerbiontech-vaccine.html<\/p>\n

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