Pfizer vaccine registered in Ukraine
Ukraine has registered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Viktor Liashko stated this at a press conference in Ukrinform.
"Yesterday, two drugs for COVID-19 immunoprophylaxis were registered in Ukraine. It is Covishield, a recombinant vector vaccine produced at the Serum Institute site. The Pfizer vaccine has also been registered," Liashko said.
Ukraine is due to receive 117,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech in early March as part of the global COVAX initiative. In total, 8 to 16 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, including the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, will be delivered to Ukraine under COVAX.
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is an mRNA vaccine, stored and transported at -70 degrees. After opening, the bottle can be stored at a temperature of + 2 to +8 degrees for no longer than 5 days. The efficacy of Pfizer/BioNTech, according to clinical studies, is 95%.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine was registered for emergency use in Ukraine on 23 February.
The vaccine's developers are Oxford University and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. In fact, it is the same "Oxford" vaccine that Serum Institute India produces for the local Indian market. In the summer of 2020, AstraZeneca and the Indian Vaccine Institute signed an agreement to produce the vaccine to "help low- and middle-income countries."
