NEW YORK – In a major breakthrough, a coronavirus vaccine being developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, US and Germany-based pharmaceutical firms, has showed efficiency more than 90 per cent in first interim analysis of third phase, giving hope that drug would be available by the end of this year to the world facing resurgence in infections.
In a joint statement, the researcher companies announced that “…their mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, against SARS-CoV-2 has demonstrated evidence of efficacy against COVID-19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, 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”.
US President Donald Trump following the announcement in a tweet said, “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!”
STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020
Researchers found during the analysis that protection of 94 persons, who were administered two doses, was achieved 28 day after the initiation of the vaccination.
During the phase 3 trial, no any serious safety concern emerged but the firms said that the study will continue to collect additional safety and efficacy data as planned
“Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19,” said Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO.
Prof. Ugur Sahin, BioNTech co-founder and CEO said, “The first interim analysis of our global Phase 3 study provides evidence that a vaccine may effectively prevent COVID-19. This is a victory for innovation, science and a global collaborative effort”.
If the vaccine is approved by the authorities in the US, the firms expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
Global tally Of COVID-19 cases exceeds 50 million
The number of COVID-19 infections across the world has surpassed 50 million, according to the latest data provided by Johns Hopkins University on Sunday.
As of 16:45 GMT, the global case tally stood at 50,052,204, with 1,253,110 fatalities.
The US has the highest number of infections, with 9,879,323, followed by India with 8,507,754 and Brazil, which has reported 5,653,561. Russia has registered the fourth highest number of cases (1,760,420) while France’s total stands at 1,709,773.
October was the worst month for the pandemic so far, with the United States becoming the first country to report more than 100,000 daily cases. A surge in Europe contributed to the rise.
The latest seven-day average shows global daily infections are rising by more than 540,000.
More than 32.8 million people have recovered from COVID-19 worldwide.
