Pfizer coronavirus vaccine more than 90 per cent effective, US drug maker says
- Pfizer and German partner BioNTech have a US$1.95 billion contract with the US government to deliver 100 million vaccine doses beginning this year
- Questions remain, including how long the vaccine will provide protection, but Pfizer expects to produce up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are the first drug makers to release successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek US authorisation this month for emergency use of the vaccine.
The news provides hope that other Covid-19 vaccines currently in development are going after the right target and are a proof of concept that the disease can be halted with vaccination.
“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and CEO, said.
We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development programme at a time when the world needs it most
“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development programme at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing overcapacity and economies struggling to reopen.”
If Pfizer’s vaccine is authorised, the number of doses will initially be limited and many questions remain, including how long the vaccine will provide protection – though BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said he was optimistic the immunisation effect of the vaccine would last for a year.
“This news made me smile from ear to ear. It is a relief to see such positive results on this vaccine and bodes well for Covid-19 vaccines in general,” said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford.
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Pfizer coronavirus vaccine more than 90 per cent effective, US drug maker says
The prospect of a vaccine electrified world markets with S&P 500 futures hitting a record high and tourism and travel shares surging. “Light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s just hope the vaccine deniers won’t get in the way, but 2021 just got a lot brighter,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com
“I’m near ecstatic,” Bill Gruber, one of Pfizer’s top vaccine scientists, said in an interview. “This is a great day for public health and for the potential to get us all out of the circumstances we’re now in.”
To save time, the companies began manufacturing the vaccine before they knew whether it would be effective. They now expect to produce up to 50 million doses, or enough to protect 25 million people this year.
Pfizer said it expects to produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.
The US pharmaceutical giant said the interim analysis was conducted after 94 participants in the trial developed Covid-19, examining how many of them had received the vaccine versus a placebo.
The company did not break down exactly how many of those who fell ill received the vaccine. Still, over 90 per cent effectiveness implies that no more than 8 of the 94 people who caught Covid-19 had been given the vaccine, which was administered in two shots about three weeks apart.
The efficacy rate is well above the 50 per cent effectiveness required by the US Food and Drug Administration for a coronavirus vaccine.
To confirm the efficacy rate, Pfizer said it would continue the trial until there are 164 Covid-19 cases among participants. Given the recent spike in US infection rates, that number could be reached by early December, Gruber said.
The data have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. Pfizer said it would do so once it has results from the entire trial.
The global race for a vaccine has seen wealthier countries forge multibillion-dollar supply deals with drug makers like Pfizer, AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson, raising questions over when middle income and poorer nations will get access to inoculations.
The US quest for a vaccine has been the Trump administration’s central response to the pandemic. The United States has the world’s highest known number of Covid-19 cases and deaths with more than 10 million infections and over 237,000 fatalities.
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Vaccines are seen as essential tools to help end the health crisis that has closed businesses and left millions out of work. Millions of children whose schools were closed in March remain in remote learning programmes.
Dozens of drug makers and research groups around the globe have been racing to develop vaccines against Covid-19, which on Sunday exceeded 50 million infections since the new coronavirus first emerged late last year in China.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which relies on synthetic genes that can be generated and manufactured in weeks, and produced at scale more rapidly than conventional vaccines.
Moderna Inc, whose vaccine candidate employs similar technology, is expected to report results from its large-scale trial later this month.
The mRNA technology is designed to trigger an immune response without using pathogens, such as actual virus particles.
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Pfizer alone will not have the capacity to immediately provide enough vaccines for the US. The Trump administration has said it will have enough supply for all of the 330 million US residents who wish to be vaccinated by the middle of 2021.
The US government has said the vaccines will be provided free to Americans, including the insured, uninsured and those in government health programmes such as Medicare.
