The United Kingdom became the first country to grant emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, the drugmaker said Dec. 30.
The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the country's equivalent of the FDA, approved AstraZeneca's vaccine for use in those 18 years or older, recommending the two doses be administered within an interval of four to 12 weeks.
The drugmaker said it is working with the U.K. government to distribute doses as quickly as possible, potentially allowing for shots to be administered in early January.
The vaccine, which uses a chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of an adenovirus, costs $3 to $4 a dose and can be stored in normal refrigerated conditions. It is cheaper and easier to store than the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, which received FDA emergency use approval Dec. 11 and Dec. 18, respectively.