Pfizer to seek emergency approval for its COVID vaccine
The answer to the coronavirus, which has
infected just under 56 million people globally, may be just a couple critical
weeks away.
Pfizer said today its COVID-19 vaccine is 95 per cent effective in preventing infections, even in older adults, an improvement of the initial data which gave it a 90 per cent efficiency rate two weeks ago.
The Phase 3 trial success means that
Pfizer and its German partner BioTech, will seek an emergency use authorisation
from the US Food and Drug Administration in the coming days.
Regarding the Phase 3 trial, which began
with 43,661 volunteers on July 27, Pfizer said “Efficacy was consistent across age, race and ethnicity
demographics. The observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94
per cent.”
The 150 clinical
trials sites in United States, Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil and
Argentina will continue to collect information about efficacy and safety for
two more years.