UK on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use against COVID-19 and said that it will be rolled out from next week. The vaccine has been authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), ahead of decisions by the US and Europe.
The MHRA was given power to approve the vaccine by the government under special regulations before 1 January, when it will become fully responsible for medicines authorisation in the UK after Brexit.