Dear Pharmacists,
Pfizer and BioNTech made an announcement on November 18, that the Phase 3 trial of their COVID-19 vaccine was shown to have around 95% effectiveness against the virus 28 days after the first dose. The vaccine, BNT162b2, hit all primary endpoints and showed a 95% efficacy rate in patients without COVID and those patients with and without COVID seven days after the second dose was given.
There have been no serious adverse events or safety concerns reported with the vaccine as of yet. The vaccine has been well-tolerated by the patient population in the trial. Only fatigue and headache have been reported after administration of the second dose. Safety milestones set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) were achieved and approval/manufacturing of the vaccine will be submitted for efficacy and safety peer-review once data analysis has been completed.
The CEO of Pfizer stated “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. We continue to move at the speed of science to compile all the data collected thus far and share with regulators around the world.” Their current plan for distribution will be to produce 50 million vaccines worldwide in 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.
For more information on Pfizer’s vaccine and details on the Phase 3 trial: