Ukraine may get accelerated access to a vaccine against the coronavirus (COVID-19) if the parliament passes proper legislation.
The parliamentary committee has recently recommended that lawmakers back bill No. 4314. The document makes it possible to speed up the approval process for clinical trials and registration of vaccines and drugs against COVID-19, according to the Servant of the People Party's press service.
"Vaccinating a large number of patients will reduce the load on Ukraine's healthcare system," MP from the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, Chairman of the parliament's Committee on National Health, Medical Assistance and Medical Insurance Mykhailo Radutsky said.
The lawmaker assured it would become possible thanks to the bill as Ukraine's participation in clinical trials of vaccines would let it vaccinate part of the population.
"What is more, shortening the period of state registration of vaccines will accelerate their full-scale use," he added.
Read alsoOver half of Ukrainians ready to get free COVID-19 vaccine – pollCoronavirus vaccine: Recent developments
- U.S.-based pharma giant Pfizer, which jointly with Germany's BionTech is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus, updated the public on a higher rate of vaccine effectiveness.
- A primary efficacy analysis demonstrates BNT162b2 to be 95% effective against COVID-19 beginning 28 days after the first dose; 170 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were evaluated, with 162 observed in the placebo group versus 8 in the vaccine group, the companies said in a press release.
- The efficacy of the vaccine was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics; the observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94%.
- The safety data milestone required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) has been achieved.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on November 10 had a phone call with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, asking the German leader to assist in supplying a U.S.-German-developed COVID-19 vaccine to Ukraine.
- On November 16, Moderna, Inc. said its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage trial.
- On November 18, the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) confirmed the reports on plans to provide Ukraine with a free vaccine against the coronavirus disease. In particular, about 4 million Ukrainian nationals will be able to get vaccinated in the first half of 2021. Later it became known that proper vaccination includes two shots at a price of US$7 each.
- It was reported on December 2 the UK became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.
