The vaccine against COVID-19 developed by the Pfizer and Biontech, is «effective against 90%» in protection against Covid-19 according to the results of large-scale clinical trials currently underway in Phase 3, which is the final phase before a licence application is submitted, the two laboratories announced today after the first analysis of the results at the midpoint of Phase 3. The final assessment will be carried out prior to the application for a licence.
Patient protection was achieved seven days after the administration of the second of the two doses and 28 days after the first dose is given, according to preliminary results.
The effectiveness of the vaccine was measured by comparing the number of participants infected with the new coronavirus in the group that received the vaccine and the group that received placebo, «seven days after the second dose» and 28 days after the first, the two laboratories explain in their statement.
«More than eight months after the start of the worst pandemic in a century, we believe this stage represents an important step forward for the world in our fight against Covid-19,» Pfizer CEO Albert Burla said in the statement.
«The first set of results from the Phase 3 trial of the Covid-19 vaccine provides the initial proof of concept for the ability of our vaccine to prevent Covid-19,» he adds.
The companies anticipate having the ability to deliver up to 50 million doses of vaccine in the world in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
BioNTech co-founder Ugur Shahin, for his part, said he is optimistic that the protective effect of the vaccine will last at least a year.
«We have to be optimistic that the immune action can last for at least a year,» he told Reuters.
Although the duration of protection is not yet known, research on treated patients and previous findings for the Pfizer and Biontech vaccine lead him to believe that protection will not be short-lived.
