Bahrain Approves Pfizer-BioNTech's Vaccine Against COVID-19 For Emergency Usage, Becomes 2nd Country After UK

Manama, December 4: Bahrain on Friday approved Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine "BNT162b2" for emergency usage. It has become the second country After the United Kingdom to approve the usage of COVID-19 vaccine developed by United States pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech. Notably, the Gulf Arab state in November this year had also approved Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine for frontline workers.

"The approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will add a further important layer to the Kingdom's national Covid-19 response," reported news agency Reuters quoting Dr Mariam Al Jalahma, CEO of Bahrain's National Health Regulatory Authority. After UK Approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Here Are Other Vaccine Candidates Awaiting Approval in These Countries.

The UK on December 3, approved the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from next week in the country. The approval came after the country's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) concluded that the vaccine had met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness after months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data. Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine: All You Need to Know About 'World's First Approved Vaccine' to be Available For Use in UK From Next Week.

The approval from the UK constitutes the first emergency use authorisation of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine following a worldwide Phase 3 trial which demonstrated a vaccine efficacy rate of 95 percent. According to reports, Pfizer's and BioNTech's combined manufacturing network has the potential to supply globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 04, 2020 11:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).