Will the Pfizer vaccine be available privately in the UK?

November 2020 | Reading time: 2 minutes

Who will be first to get the Pfizer vaccine and will it be available privately?

The UK government has already ordered 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNtech’s vaccine. As two doses are needed, that’s enough to treat 5 million people. The most vulnerable people will be the first to have access to the vaccine.

A previously published list prioritises citizens in this order:

Older adults in a care home and care home workers

• All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers, though they may move up the list
• Anyone 75 years of age and over
• People aged 70 and over
• All those aged 65 and over
• High-risk adults under 65 years of age
• Moderate-risk adults under 65 years of age
• All those aged 60 and over
• All those 55 and over
• All those aged 50 and over
• The rest of the population, with priority yet to be determined

Can I pay to have the vaccination privately, and what will the cost be?

In theory, the vaccine will be available privately. Historically, vaccinations have been available privately for those who don’t qualify or don’t wish to wait for availability via the NHS. However, these are not typical circumstances, and it is not currently known when there will be sufficient availability for private medical groups to purchase from Pfizer supply of vaccines.

Pfizer has stated that they will be able to supply 50 million doses within the next seven weeks and 1.3 billion in the following 12 months.

Will this be the only vaccine available?

There still isn’t 100% certainty that the Pfizer/BioNtech will be approved and distributed globally, although the clinical trials are certainly the most promising thus far.

There are still many vaccines that continue to be developed and it’s likely that we see several available options in 2021 (see progress data here).

We will update this post when more information becomes available.

View press release here