BioNTech, Pfizer announce over 90 pct efficacy of their COVID-19 vaccine

A vaccine candidate jointly developed by the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech SE and the U.S. company Pfizer Inc. has proved to be more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection in participants with no proven previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, the two companies announced on Monday.

Furthermore, no serious side effects have been observed based on first interim results from the ongoing Phase 3 clinical study conducted by an external, independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC), according to their joint statement.

The Phase 3 study of the vaccine candidate BNT162b2 started at the end of July. As of last Sunday, 38,955 volunteers had already received the second dose of the vaccine.

The two companies are planning to submit their potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the third week of November.