The drug makers Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE yesterday announced that their experimental COVID-19 vaccine is over 90% effective, leading to hope that the fight against the global pandemic might just be about to enter a new more promising phase. The pair stated that to date they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek US approval within the month for emergency use of the vaccine for people aged 16 to 85. Questions do remain, like how long the vaccine will provide protection for, however the news will provide hope that other vaccines in development around the world will also prove effective.
Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, Albert Bourla was understandably bullish about the drug’s potential, saying ‘Today is a great day for science and humanity’. He added ‘We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development programme at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen’. One of Pfizer’s top vaccine scientists, Bill Gruber was even more delighted. ‘I’m near ecstatic’ he said in an interview, adding ‘This is a great day for public health and for the potential to get us all out of the circumstances we’re now in’.
Pfizer and BioNTech have a contact worth nearly USD2bn with the US government to deliver 100 million vaccine doses. They have also reached supply agreements with the United Kingdom, the EU, Japan, and Canada. In a bold and unusual move, the companies have already begun production of the vaccine before they knew whether it would be effective. They expect to make up to 50 million doses, approximately enough to protect 25 million people this year. Next year Pfizer said it expects to make up to 1.3 billion doses of the vaccine.
On the back of the announcement stock markets soared. The global rally added more than USD1.8tn to the value of the MSCI All Country World Index. Pfizer stock was up as much as 15% at one point. The German biotech firm did even better, with the shares having intraday highs of 25%.