Originally Posted by
Witton Park
Of course, no stone should be left unturned. And that’s why it’s important that we don’t just rely on our own analysis. So, once we have reviewed the data, we seek advice from the Government’s independent advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines. They critically assess the data too before advising the UK government on the safety, quality and effectiveness of any vaccine.
On 1 December we received a letter from the Department of Health and Social Care asking us to authorise the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine under Regulation 174, an EU provision introduced in national law that allows for the authorisation of a medicine in response to a public health need.
This means that, instead of having to go through the centralised licensing route of the European Medicines Agency (as most vaccines do until the end of the transition period), we were able to authorise the supply of the vaccine based on public health need, provided the batches meet specific conditions laid out by us. For those concerned about this, I can assure you without reservation that the standards we have worked to are equivalent to those around the world – no corners have been cut.