The medicimes regulator has approved the Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for use.

The vaccine is 94 per cent effective and the Government has already ordered 7 million doses announcing today that it had agreed to purchase an additional 10 million doses looking to roll out the vaccine in April.

The United States began rolling out the Moderna vaccine in late December, while the company has said the process will get underway in the EU next week.

“We appreciate the confidence shown by the UK MHRA in COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna with this decision,” said Stephane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, referring to the medicines regulator.

Meanwhile Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appears able to protect against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in Britain and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.

The study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, indicated the vaccine was effective in neutralizing virus with the so-called N501Y mutation of the spike protein.

The mutation is linked to greater transmissibility and there had been concerns it could also make the virus escape antibody neutralization elicited by the vaccine, said Phil Dormitzer, one of Pfizer’s top viral vaccine scientists.

The reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus transmission across the UK is between 1 and 1.4, the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said.

When R was last updated on December 23 it was between 1.1 and 1.3.

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