Nov 18, 2020, Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON, DC, USA
Pfizer says the vaccine had no serious side effects and that the company will apply for emergency use authorization from US regulators ‘within days’
The biotech company Pfizer said Wednesday, November 18, that a completed study of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed it is 95% effective.
Pfizer said the vaccine had no serious side effects and that the company will apply for emergency use authorization from US regulators “within days.”
The announcement came as coronavirus cases are surging in the US and other parts of the world, and boosted hopes for an end to the pandemic that has upended life around the globe.
“The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
“With hundreds of thousands of people around the globe infected every day, we urgently need to get a safe and effective vaccine to the world,” he added.
Pfizer had said last week after a preliminary analysis that its product was more than 90% effective.
On Monday, November 16, another biotech firm involved in the race to develop a vaccine, Moderna, said its own vaccine was 94.5% effective, according to a preliminary analysis. – Rappler.com