A vaccine candidate jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been shown to be "90% effective" in preventing COVID-19 infections in phase trials 3, the two laboratories announced on Monday. The European Union has already ordered 200 million doses.
More than 150 vaccines are currently in development around the world to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Among them, only a few have passed the phase 3 stage, i.e. the last step before applying for marketing authorization. In this sample is the one developed jointly by the Pfizer laboratory and the German biotechnology company Biontech BioNTech. And the news is good. On Monday, the two companies announced that their vaccine candidate is "90% effective".
In concrete terms, we learn that the immunity of the patients would have been obtained seven days after the second of the two doses, and 28 days after the first.
“The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provide initial evidence of our vaccine's ability to prevent COVID-19 “said Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla. "We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated by thousands of participants in the coming weeks “.
It also refers to a "real breakthrough needed to help end this global health crisis “.
These are only preliminary results, but they are nonetheless hopeful. Pending the final results, the two companies concerned even intend to submit an emergency use authorization request to the FDA, the American health agency, in a few days.
Subject to this approval, the vaccine could be available before the end of December. If this is the case, the two companies have assured that they will be able to supply up to 50 million doses of vaccines worldwide before the end of the year , and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021 . The European Union, for its part, has already ordered 200 million doses , with an option of 100 million additional doses.
“We have activated our supply chain, and mainly our site in Belgium, and we are starting to manufacture our vaccine so that it is available as soon as possible , if our clinical trials prove successful and regulatory approval is obtained “, said Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer.
Note that the European Commission has also announced the signing of a contract with the British laboratory AstraZeneca (at least 300 million doses of its vaccine candidate), and with Sanofi-GSK (300 million doses of also).
As Les Échos points out , not everyone in our country will be able to take advantage of this first wave of vaccines, if, again, it is authorized. "Itwill be up to the High Authority for Health (HAS) to put in place a vaccination strategy and determine the priority populations “, can we read. Namely health and medico-social professionals, and people at risk of serious forms (people over the age of 65 and those with comorbidities).
Finally, let's remember that more than 50.3 million cases of infection have been officially diagnosed since the start of the epidemic. Johns Hopkins University also lists more than 1.2 million deaths worldwide.
