After UK, US Also Okays Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine For Public Use

Washington: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given authorisation to the emergency use of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine candidate in the country.

The US authorisation comes days after the UK became the first country to begin mass rollout of the Pfizer vaccine, which is developed with German partner BioNTech.

Soon after the FDA’s announcement, US President Donald Trump hailed the vaccine as a “medical miracle”, India Today reported.

“Today our nation has achieved a medical miracle. We have delivered a safe and effective medicine in just nine months,” Trump said, adding that the first doses of the vaccine will be administered within 24 hours.

The Pfizer vaccine has already been approved for the public in the UK, Canada, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

India is also considering the Pfizer dose after the US pharma giant sought emergency use authorisation here.

India is also considering approving emergency use of two other vaccine candidates, which are being developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) in partnership with AstraZeneca and Oxford University and the second by Bharat Biotech.