Pfizer and BioNTech announce their Covid-19 vaccine to be 90% effective
21:42
The first preliminary results from large-scale studies show that a potential Covid-19 vaccine from the Pfizer / BioNTech consortium is 90 percent. effective, the manufacturers said.
Preliminary studies showed much better results than most experts predicted. The US Food and Drug Administration, or regulatory approval of drugs on the market, requires vaccines to be at least 50 percent effective in pre-market trials. 90 percent of effectiveness clearly exceeds this threshold.
According to the World Health Organization, no vaccine is 100 percent effective, says The Guardian.
"Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of Phase 3 Covid-19 research results provides the first evidence that our vaccine can prevent Covid-19," Dr. Albert Bourla, president and CEO of the company Pfizer, said.
The substance developed by BioNTech and Pfizer belongs to the group of gene-based vaccines. They contain genetic information about pathogens. In the body, this information is used to produce proteins against which the immune system creates antibodies.
Pfizer / BioNTech say their vaccine doesn't have any serious side effects. The companies also said they are capable of producing up to 50 million doses of the vaccine this year, and 1.3 billion next year.
Pfizer shares soared 14 percent on the New York Stock Exchange before the markets open. Other markets around the world also responded positively to the news about the positive test run. Piotr Bujak, the chief economist of the PKO BP bank, said that the markets were even euphoric.
