One of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world says its covid-19 vaccine is 90 per cent effective following trials.
Pfizer said the first interim results from its large-scale trials found the vaccine to be effective for nine out of ten people who had not been infected before.
UPDATE: We are proud to announce, along with @BioNTech_Group, that our mRNA-based #vaccine candidate has, at an interim analysis, demonstrated initial evidence of efficacy against #COVID19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
— Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) November 9, 2020
It is a far higher efficacy rate than many experts had hoped for.
Regulators were prepared to accept a vaccine that was just 50% effective.
Pfizer says its study enrolled 43,538 participants, with 42% having diverse backgrounds, and no serious safety concerns have been observed.
The participants either got two doses of either the immunisation or a placebo, which doesn't do anything.
Pfizer is expecting to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
The company said today is a "great day for science and humanity", with tests showing no evidence of side effects.
Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO, said “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis."
*Reporting by Michael Staines
