Pfizer says early analysis of its vaccine shows it is more than 90% effective

Pfizer says early analysis of its vaccine shows it is more than 90% effective

 

Drugmaker Pfizer said Monday that an early look at data from its coronavirus vaccine shows it is more than 90% effective -- a much better than expected efficacy if the trend continues.   The so-called interim analysis looked at the first 94 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among the more than 43,000 volunteers who either got two doses of the vaccine or a placebo. It found that fewer than 10% of Covid-19 infections were in participants who had been given the vaccine. More than 90% of the cases were in people who had been given a placebo.   In an interview with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Monday morning, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla called the Covid-19 vaccine "the greatest medical advance" in 100 years.   "Emotions are very high. You can imagine how I felt when I heard the results yesterday at 2 p.m. I think that likely, based on impact, this will be the greatest medical advance in the last 100 years," Bourla said. He added that Pfizer expects to have 50 million vaccine doses globally this year, and 1.3 billion next year.   Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN on Monday that these results were good news for all vaccines because it shows that using the spike protein as a target was the right call and that this type of vaccine can be successful.   "This shows that the mRNA platform actually does work. And there's another vaccine candidate, Moderna, that's using the same platform," said Fauci, who as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is helping develop vaccines being made by Moderna and others, but not Pfizer’s.   In a news release, Pfizer said it plans to seek emergency use authorization from the FDA soon after volunteers have been monitored for two months after getting their second dose of vaccine, as requested by the FDA. It anticipates reaching that marker by the third week of November.