A front-runner COVID-19 vaccine developed by US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech has been found to be 90 percent effective in protecting people from COVID-19, a preliminary analysis report showed.
UPDATE: We are proud to announce, along with @BioNTech_Group, that our mRNA-based #vaccine candidate has, at an interim analysis, demonstrated initial evidence of efficacy against #COVID19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
— Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) November 9, 2020
The report is based on the first interim efficacy analysis conducted on November 8, 2020, by an external, independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) from the Phase 3 clinical study.
“Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis,” Pfizer said in a statement.
The developers- Pfizer and BioNTech have termed it as a “great day for science and humanity.”
The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people spanning across six countries and no safety concern has been raised till now.
Pfizer and BioNTech now plan to apply for emergency approval to use the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month.
The two companies have informed that they will be able to supply 50 million doses by the end of the year and around 1.3 billion by the end of 2021. Each person needs two doses.