---
title: "UK Becomes First Western Country to Approve COVID Vaccine"
description: "The UK has officially licensed the COVID-19 vaccine developed by multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech."
date: "2020-12-02"
modified: "2020-12-02"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/uk-becomes-first-western-country-to-approve-covid-vaccine"
categories:
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
  - "Viruses"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "vaccine"
  - "vaccines"
---

# UK Becomes First Western Country to Approve COVID Vaccine

![The UK has officially licensed the COVID-19 vaccine developed by multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/uk-becomes-first-western-country-to-approve-covid-vaccine.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Retha Ferguson\</em\>*

The UK has officially licensed the COVID-19 vaccine developed by multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech.

The country will begin vaccinating high risk groups as soon as next week with 800,000 initial doses, according to officials. Most if not all will be administered to healthcare workers.

Medical authorities in the US and Europe have yet to approve the Pfizer vaccine — or any other of the several in development — which was shown to be [95 percent effective](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/pfizer-covid-vaccine-95-percent-effective>) in battling COVID-19.

"The government has today accepted the recommendation from the \[Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority\] to approve Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for use," a UK government spokesperson said, as [*The Guardian* reports](<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/02/pfizer-biontech-covid-vaccine-wins-licence-for-use-in-the-uk>).

The news comes shortly after both Pfizer and US-based pharmaceutical Moderna submitted their COVID-19 vaccines to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use.

Making the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine challenging is the fact that it needs to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius — far colder than a standard freezer.

"The goal will be to vaccinate through the NHS right across the UK as rapidly as the company can manufacture," health secretary Matt Hancock [told the *BBC*](<https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/02/pfizer-biontech-covid-vaccine-wins-licence-for-use-in-the-uk>). "It will help save lives. Once we’ve protected the most vulnerable it will help us all get back to normal and back to some of the things that we love."

Hancock also noted that after Easter, the country may have a chance of returning to some semblance of normality.

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)