1. Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine in its final trial results showed it had a 95 per cent success rate with no serious side effects against COVID-19.
2. BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin in a conversation with Reuters TV said that the US’s Food and Drug Administration could grant them an emergency-use approval by mid-December.
3. Moreover, conditional approval in the European Union for the vaccine could be secured in the second half of December.
4. Tests had already shown that the success rate of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was far higher than the acceptable number by the regulators.
5. In the trial, of the 170 volunteers out of 43,000 who contracted COVID-19, 162 were given a placebo, indicating that the vaccine was 95 per cent effective. Out of 10 volunteers who had severe COVID-19, one had received the vaccine.
6. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was also found to be 94 per cent effective in people over the age of 65, which is considered as a high-risk group.
7. As per the report, An FDA advisory committee plans to meet on December 8-10 to discuss the vaccine, although according to sources, the dates could change in future.
8. According to officials, Moderna’s vaccine could get authorised within seven to ten working days of Pfizer receiving its EUA, with states ready to commence distribution in a matter of 24 hours.
