Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine candidate ' 90% effective ' -NHK WORLD -JAPAN 3 hours ago
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says its vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 percent effective in an interim analysis.
Pfizer on Monday released the first interim efficacy analysis conducted by an external, independent committee.
The vaccine candidate, which Pfizer is developing together with Germany's BioNTech ,is in the final phase of trials in the United States and other countries.
The study has enrolled 43,538 participants, and 94 cases of coronavirus infection were confirmed.
The release said, "the case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo indicates a vaccine efficacy rate above 90%."
It added, "no serious safety concerns have been observed."
Pfizer suggested that the efficacy rate may change because the trial is still ongoing. But it said it plans to apply for Emergency Use Authorization to the US Food and Drug Administration in the third week of November.
Pfizer expects to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
It has talked the Japanese government about supplying it with doses for 60 million people by the end of June 2021.
