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* UK ahead of others once more with emergency approval
* Britain has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine
* Health minister eyes route out of pandemic by spring
* Britain to prioritise first shots over boosters
(Adds India, more details and quotes)
By Alistair Smout and Paul Sandle
LONDON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Britain on Wednesday became the
first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine
developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, hoping
that rapid action would help it stem a surge of infections
driven by a highly contagious variant of the virus.
Boris Johnson's government, which has already ordered 100
million doses of the vaccine, said it had accepted a
recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to grant emergency authorisation.
The approval is a vindication for a shot seen as essential
for mass immunisations in the developing world as well as in
Britain, but does not eliminate questions about trial data that
make it unlikely to be approved so rapidly in the European Union
or the United States.
"The NHS (National Health Service) will be able to deliver
these shots into people's arms at the speed at which it can be
manufactured," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News.
"I am also now, with this approval this morning, highly
confident that we can get enough vulnerable people vaccinated by
the spring that we can now see our route out of this pandemic."
Johnson called the approval a "triumph for British science".
Hancock said hundreds of thousands of doses would be
available to administer next week in Britain, which is already
rolling out a vaccine developed by Pfizer of the United States
and BioNTech of Germany.
The Oxford vaccine has been found in trials to be less
effective than the Pfizer/BioNTech shot but, crucially for
countries with more basic health infrastructure, can be stored
and transported under normal refrigeration, rather than
supercooled to -70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit).
INDIA INTERESTED
India is keen to start administering the new shot next
month; Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest
producer of vaccines, has already made about 50 million doses.
Chile is also interested.
Britain has set itself apart from other Western countries
with its fast-track approach to vaccinations, having
green-lighted the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine weeks before the EU's
European Medicines Authority (EMA) did so.
A UK government advisory body on Wednesday recommended a
change of course by giving as many people as possible a first
dose of coronavirus vaccine right away, rather than giving the
second, booster shot within the shortest period of time.
Uncertainty has swirled over the most effective dosing
pattern for the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine since it released
data last month showing a 90% success rate for a half-dose
followed by a full dose, but only 62% - still usually more than
enough for regulators - for two full doses.
The more successful outcome emerged, by accident, in a much
smaller number of participants, all under 55, and AstraZeneca is
carrying out more tests to see if that rate holds up in a bigger
set of volunteers.
AstraZeneca did not specify which regimen had been approved
on Wednesday. The MHRA was due to brief reporters shortly.
The EMA says it has not yet received full data on the
AstraZeneca vaccine and is unlikely to be able to approve it
next month. A decision from the U.S. regulator is also not
imminent.
MIXED MESSAGES
Governments need to secure widespread public acceptance of a
new vaccine in order to achieve so-called "herd immunity", but
have to contend with anti-vaccine campaigns able to spread their
messages rapidly through social media.
Antonella Viola, an immunologist at Padua University in
Italy, said that the divergence between regulators was a "bad
message that disorients citizens".
"While there is no doubt about the safety of the vaccine,
the efficacy is unclear - and too many errors and announcements
have complicated the interpretation of the data," she said.
But for some, the seriousness of the pandemic was enough to
merit swift action.
Britain and South Africa in particular are grappling with
more contagious variants of the coronavirus, which has already
killed 1.7 million people around the world, sown chaos through
the global economy and upended normal life for billions.
Many countries have banned passenger flights and blocked
trade to try to keep the new mutation out.
"To get out of this debacle, there is no alternative to
having a significant majority of the population carrying a high
level of neutralising antibodies," said Danny Altmann, a
professor of immunology at Imperial College London.
"I suspect this (authorisation) will speed things by several
months. An immune population by the spring starts to look
feasible."
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot told BBC radio
that Britain should be able to vaccinate tens of millions of
people by the end of the first quarter.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Paul Sandle in London,
additional reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru, Kate
Kelland in London, John Miller in Zurich, Emilio Parodi in
Milan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kevin Liffey)
