FOI release

Freedom of Information request on the MHRA's income from the pharmaceutical industry (FOI 21-628)

Published 13 August 2021

14th June 2021 FOI 21/628

Dear

Thank you for your email.

The majority of our income comes from the pharmaceutical industry through fees. For example, all Marketing Authorisation applicants have to pay a fee. The licensing of medicines is an independent, scientific process which is overseen by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM).

The CHM is an independent body which advises on applications for marketing authorisations. This includes considering further representation against our provisional advice in respect of national applications; advises on the need for, and content of, risk management plans for new medicines; advises on the impact of new safety issues on the balance of risks and benefits of licensed medicines – e.g. adding warnings, restricting or suspending use of a medicine and advises the licensing authority on changes to legal status of marketing authorisations.

Please review the following link to the 2019/20 Annual Report which has a breakdown of how the MHRA is funded on page 9:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/medicines-and-healthcare-products-regulatory-agency-annual-report-and-accounts-2019-to-2020

Death statistics are not held by the MHRA and as such we would advise you to contact the Office for National Statistics Contact us - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

The Yellow Card scheme is run by the MHRA and is the UK system for collecting and monitoring information on safety concerns such as suspected side effects or adverse incidents involving medicines and medical devices. Reports received through our Yellow Card scheme include some fatality reports and these can be viewed by following the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions

We have carefully reviewed clinical trial data for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in over 2000 children aged 12 to 15 years of age and have concluded that that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh any risk and that it is effective and acceptably safe in this age group. This data has also been reviewed by the independent Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), its COVID-19 vaccine benefit-risk expert working group, as well as the Paediatric Medicines Expert Advisory Group.

No new side effects were identified and the safety data in children was comparable with that seen in young adults. As in the young adult age group, the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate, relating to reactogenicity (e.g. sore arm and tiredness.)

The Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) met on 27 May 2021 to discuss the request to vary the existing authorisation to extend the approval to apply to children aged 12 – 15 years old.

The CHM considered the results of randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials in over 2000 children aged 12 – 15 years.

The immunogenicity results (showing how well the vaccine works), studied in approximately 200 children, demonstrated similar neutralising antibody levels in adolescents aged 12-15 years compared with the levels in young adults aged 16-25 years.

These results are supported by a very high level of short-term efficacy data in adolescents against symptomatic disease after 2 doses of vaccine 21 days apart.

In participants with no prior evidence of infection there were no cases of COVID-19 in the vaccinated group from 7 days after the second dose compared with 16 cases in the placebo group.

Consistent with what was seen in adults there was evidence that the vaccine provides protection even before the administration of dose 2. There were no cases seen in the vaccine group from 11 days after dose 1 compared to 31 in the placebo group. Prior to day 11 there were 3 cases in the vaccine group and 4 on placebo.

Safety data in children aged 12-15 years is available from one clinical trial. This safety data is supported by the safety data from the clinical trials in individuals aged 16 years and over, together with a large amount of real-world data on the safety of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in individuals aged 16 years and over. This has been closely monitored as the vaccine has been rolled out both in the UK and internationally. This experience has reinforced the conclusion that the benefits of the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine continue to outweigh any possible side effects.

The Public Assessment Report (Regulatory approval of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) will be updated to include the data which the CHM looked at to approve this vaccine, this will be available in due course.

If you have a query about the information provided, please reply to this email

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date you receive this response and addressed to: info@mhra.gov.uk

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, we are not able to accept delivery of any documents or correspondence by post or courier to any of our offices

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you were to remain dissatisfied with the outcome of the internal review, you would have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Please bear in mind that the Information Commissioner will not normally review our handling of your request unless you have first contacted us to conduct an internal review. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

MHRA Customer Service Centre

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 4PU