Why haven't other countries approved the Pfizer vaccine yet?

[CoolYourBeansMySon]

I'm just wondering really. There's been such a lot of publicity about how the UK is the first to approve it. I'm guessing that other countries will approve it but have different regulations to go through. Is it the vaccine or logistics that are delaying others approval?

Our regulatory approvals are at a point of transition between EU approvals and UK approvals, things already in the system are going via the EU and new via the UK. Therefore the UK has less things already in the pipeline and it will be easier to be all hands on deck to approve this without unfairly stopping work on other already filed medicines.

The link below tackles this question.

On the US - "Unlike many of its counterparts American regulators have not taken data for new vaccines on this rolling basis, causing a slight delay"

On the EU - "The EMA has insisted different time frames were due to slightly different regulatory procedures. In the UK, approval relates only to specific batches of vaccines, which speeds up the process and allows rapid access. But for every new batch of the jab, this temporary approval must be reissued.

Instead, the EMA is pursuing a “conditional marketing authorisation”, which differs from batch approval, it insists, “in the level of evidence submitted and checks required”.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/will-countries-approve-pfizer-biontech-vaccine/amp/

That's a really helpful link, thanks Arial.

Does that mean that the EU might approve other vaccines ahead of the Pfizer depending on order of submission?