The UK medicines regulator has defended the speed at which it approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine after America’s top infectious disease expert questioned the level of scrutiny.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned confidence in the breakthrough jab could be undermined due to how fast it was given the green light.
He told CBS that American regulators would do a ‘more thorough job’, although he later backed away from the comments, saying he was not implying sloppiness on the part of British authorities in whom he had ‘great faith’.
Earlier, he said that Britain ‘kind of ran around the corner of the marathon and joined it in the last mile’ adding: ‘They really rushed through that approval.’
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‘The FDA, the United States of America Food and Drug Administration, is the gold standard of regulation,’ he said.
‘They are doing it in a careful way, appropriately.’
On Wednesday the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine, which trials have shown to be 95% effective.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Dr Fauci said he had confidence in the data but warned the speed of the approval could out people of taking the vaccine.
‘When we did a survey here in the US, there was a considerable degree of scepticism and reluctance to get vaccinated and we were concerned that if we did anything that looked like it was cutting corners that would feed into the scepticism,’ he said.
The first doses of the vaccine are now believed to have arrived in the UK, with immunisations expected to begin next week.
Following Dr Fauci’s comments a spokesperson from the Medicines Health Regulation Authority (MHRA) doubled down on its commitment to the vaccine’s safey.
They said: ‘We have rigorously assessed the data in the shortest time possible, without compromising the thoroughness of our review.
‘Covid-19 vaccines, including this one, are being developed in a co-ordinated way that allows some stages of this process to happen in parallel to condense the time needed, but it does not mean steps and the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been bypassed.’
The spokesperson explained that a rolling review of the vaccine data started at the beginning of October and that regulators had made good progress on the review before the last submission of data was received.
‘Any vaccine must undergo robust clinical trials in line with international standards, with oversight provided by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
‘No vaccine would be authorised for supply in the UK unless the expected standards of safety, quality and efficacy are met.’
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer jab, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, with 800,000 doses expected to arrive by next week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he will get vaccinated live on TV to convince people it is safe.
Meanwhile The Times reported MHRA head June Raine will conduct a round of interviews with regional radio stations in an attempt to convince people concerned about the vaccine, believing people are more likely to trust what they hear on local stations.
In a later interview with BBC News, Dr Fauci said he did not mean to ‘imply any sloppiness’, adding: ‘I do have great faith in both the scientific community and the regulatory community at the UK.’
The World Health Organisation (WHO) offered a toned down response to the MHRA decision, simply stating the approval had been ‘acknowledged’.
The European regulator has also criticised the approval of the vaccine using emergency powers, insisting that its own, slower approach is more appropriate.
One cabinet minister has been ridiculed over his attempts to justify the speed at which regulators approved the jab. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson declared the UK is getting a coronavirus vaccine first because it is a ‘much better country’ than France, Belgium and the US.
It is hoped the approval of the vaccine could herald a return to normality in Spring.
However, Boris Johnson has warned of the ‘immense logistical challenges’ ahead in terms of storing and transporting the jab, with people in care homes expected to face a delay in receiving immunisation from the disease.
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