A year ago today, the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

Early investment in the Oxford team, in their technology since 2016 and their Covid-19 vaccines since March 2020, paved the way for approval by the independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

ALSO READ: Vaccination clinic in Oxford open for walk-ins today

Almost 50 million AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered in the UK, saving countless lives, keeping people out of hospital and reducing the pressure on the NHS.

Following the government investing more than £88 million to help research, develop and manufacture the vaccine, around 2.5 billion doses have been distributed at-cost to more than 170 countries.

The director of the Oxford Vaccine Group has spoken of the “extraordinary moment” in vaccine development.

ALSO READ: Pandemic 'is over' if vaccines stop deaths says Oxford professor

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Professor Andrew Pollard said the team of researchers had felt “enormous amount of pressure” to complete the process, which would usually have taken up to 15 years.

Prof Pollard praised the work of scientists and volunteers for helping to speed up the development of the jab against expectations.

He described the process as “an extraordinary moment to be involved in vaccine development with the enormous connection of the work we do here at Oxford University with the public”.

“(It) is usually a laborious process that takes 10 to 15 years, and so it was a fairly daunting task not least because most of the commentary at the time was (that) we won’t have a vaccine for years and we really were absolutely aware that if we didn’t have a vaccine there would be many millions more people in the world who would have died, and so an enormous amount of pressure,” he said.

ALSO READ: 'Jury out' on whether new Covid vaccines are needed

“The actual mechanics of doing the trials is the same as we would normally do, it’s just that lots of causes of delay in normal production were taken out.

“We didn’t have to wait for funding approval between each step in the development process and it was relatively easy to find volunteers who really wanted to contribute in the pandemic.”

The UK will donate a further 20 million AstraZeneca doses to countries in need next year as part of the government’s commitment to donate 100 million doses overall.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "Our fight against Covid-19 in the UK and around the world would not have been possible without the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

ALSO READ: Poonawalla family donates £50m for Oxford vaccine building

"Developed by brilliant scientists at Oxford and delivered on a not-for-profit basis thanks to AstraZeneca, this vaccine has provided 50 million doses to the British public and over 2.5 billion to more than 170 other countries.

"We can all be incredibly proud of – and grateful for – a jab that has saved many millions of lives."

Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For news updates straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.

Have you got a story for us? Contact our newsdesk on news@nqo.com or 01865 425 445.