Pfizer Vaccine Is More than 90% Effective

A potential vaccine from drug company Pfizer has showed greater-than-expected early success, according to CNBC.

In a statement, Pfizer and partner BioNTech said early results showed their vaccine candidate is more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 among those who did not have a prior infection—a figure that is well above the 75% success rate that scientists have generally called for, and far beyond the 50% effectiveness rate that the Food and Drug Administration has said would merit consideration for approval. They also reported no serious safety concerns.

What it means: Experts like former FDA commissioner and Pfizer Board Member, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, suggested that a vaccine could be available for targeted and vulnerable populations before the end of the year, with wide availability for the general public by the third quarter of 2021. If further tests show the effectiveness of the vaccine remaining high, mass vaccinations could create herd immunity to the virus.

What’s next: The companies will ask the FDA for emergency use authorization after they have two months of data—which will be sometime in mid to late November. They intend to produce up to 50 million doses of the vaccine by the end of 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.