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Raising hopes for a major victory in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, drug makers Pfizer and BioNTech said their experimental vaccine could be 90% effective in preventing COVID-19.
Monday’s announcement reverberated around the world, with equity markets hitting new records and political leaders welcoming the results of the late-stage trial – even as scientists and doctors warned that many questions went unanswered. response and warned that any celebration would be premature.
With efforts to contain a disease that has killed more than 1.25 million people and devastated livelihoods globally, here’s everything you need to know about the promising vaccine.
What was announced?
The drug makers’ trial involves about 44,000 people in six countries, half of whom were given the vaccine, while the other half were given a placebo, a treatment designed to have no effect.
Monday’s data comes from an interim analysis that was conducted after 94 participants in the continuing trial developed COVID-19. Fewer than nine of them who contracted the disease had received the vaccine.
To confirm the effectiveness rate, Pfizer said it would continue its trial until there were 164 cases of COVID-19 among the volunteers, a number the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed is enough to say how much. the vaccine is working well.
The data, however, has yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. Pfizer said it will do so once it has the results of the entire process.
Outside experts said the key details of the data need to be analyzed and warned that many questions remain, including whether the vaccine can prevent serious illness or complications, how long it will protect against infection, and how well it will work in the elderly.
How does this vaccine work?
When you are vaccinated, you are usually given a weakened or dead part of the virus, or bacteria that cause disease. This way the vaccine doesn’t make you sick, but your body recognizes that it’s a foreign element and mounts an immune response. This means that when your body encounters the real insect causing that disease, it will be ready to attack it immediately.
The way this new vaccine works is called mRNA, which means that you are not actually injected with parts of the virus or a weakened form of it, but you are actually given a part of the genetic code of the coronavirus. This causes the body to produce some of the viral proteins itself so that the immune system detects these proteins and begins to produce a defensive response to them.
What was the reaction?
Investors piled into bank stocks, airlines and other economically sensitive companies that had been hit by months of coronavirus freezes and travel bans, pushing major US equity indices to new record highs.
Pfizer shares were listed 6% higher in New York, while US shares of BioNTech were up 18%.
The World Health Organization said the results were very positive, but warned there was a $ 4.5 billion funding gap that could slow access to tests, medicines and vaccines in low-income countries. and middle income.
Experts also warned that there could be major challenges in vaccine distribution, especially in poorer countries where energy supplies are inadequate, as it must be stored in industrial freezing temperatures to be effective.
What’s next?
Pfizer and BioNTech said they plan to apply to the FDA for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month, when they will have two months of safety data on about half of the study participants. This raised the possibility of a regulatory decision as early as December.
To save time, companies started making the vaccine before they knew it would be effective. Now they expect to produce up to 50 million doses, or enough to protect 25 million people, this year.
Pfizer said it plans to produce up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021.
Who lines up to buy it?
Pfizer and BioNTech have a $ 1.95 billion contract with the US government to provide 100 million doses of the vaccine starting this year. They have also reached supply agreements with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.
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