The drug maker Pfizer said on Wednesday that its coronavirus vaccine was 95 percent effective and had no serious side effects — the first set of complete results from a late-stage vaccine trial as Covid-19 cases skyrocket around the globe.
The company said it was planning to seek approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorisation “within days”. Pfizer is developing the vaccine with biotechnology company BioNTech.
The study reached 170 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with the vaccine candidate BNT162b2 demonstrating 95 per cent efficacy beginning 28 days after the first dose, Pfizer said.
The vaccine also appeared to prevent severe disease in volunteers. There were 10 cases of severe cases of COVID-19 observed in the phase three trial, with nine of the cases occurring in the placebo group, the companies said. There were also no “serious” safety concerns, they said, with most adverse events resolving shortly after vaccination.
The company’s shares jumped 3% in premarket trading.
The final analysis evaluated 170 confirmed COVID-19 infections among the late-stage trial’s more than 43,000 participants. The companies said 162 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus eight cases observed in the group that received its two-dose vaccine. That resulted in an estimated vaccine efficacy of 95%, they said.