Milestone vaccine bears fruit in clinical trials with 90% efficacy

A preliminary analysis on the first COVID-19 vaccine has proven to prevent more than 90% of the people it was administered to from contracting the virus.

Developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people across six countries, and is currently in a Phase 3 clinical trial. No safety concerns have been raised as of yet.

A limited number of individuals may get their hands on the vaccine by the end of this year, with hospital staff and care home workers likely to be given topmost priority.

While there are several other vaccines in late-stage clinical trials, this is the first time interim results have been made public.

BioNTech co-founder and CEO Prof. Ugur Sahin called this “a victory for innovation, science and a global collaborative effort.”

“When we embarked on this journey 10 months ago this is what we aspired to achieve. Especially today, while we are all in the midst of a second wave and many of us in lockdown, we appreciate even more how important this milestone is on our path towards ending this pandemic and for all of us to regain a sense of normality,” he said.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla also celebrated the achievement. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis,” he said.

Pfizer and BioNTech will continue to accumulate the safety data required for FDA emergency use authorisation until a median of two months’ worth of data is gathered. This is estimated to be available by the third week of November.