On Monday, BioNTech and Pfizer announced that their Covid-19 vaccine-in-the-making showed a 90 per cent efficiency rate in a late stage clinical trial, which sent share prices soaring around the world on the back of the scientific breakthrough.
Starting in Asia-Pacific, the news saw Japan’s Nikkei reaching its highest level since 1991.
While the vaccine has yet to undergo formal approval, Pfizer said the interim data provides greater confidence in its vaccine candidate and brings the company a significant step closer to delivering a vaccine to prevent further spread of Covid 19.
“We are committed to upholding the integrity of the data-driven, scientific review process set out by global regulatory agencies, including the FDA and EMA, and are continuing to work with these agencies as our clinical trials progress,” said Pfizer.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a news briefing today that the UK Government will be working to get the Covid-19 vaccine out “as fast as safely possible,” likely from December.
A Pfizer spokesperson told Private Equity Wire: “Should the clinical trial of our vaccine candidate be successful, and if the vaccine is approved by regulatory agencies, we, together with BioNTech, are expecting to supply up to 50 million doses by the end of 2020 and approximately 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.”
The biopharma giant also said it has signed agreements with a number of countries including the US and UK to supply the vaccine should it be successful, and added that vaccination is the only long term solution to ending the pandemic. The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine.
There are a number of other vaccines currently in late stage trials – including Oxford University and AstraZeneca, which will release their vaccine results shortly as well.
“We cannot comment on the development progress of other companies’ vaccines. However we recognise that no one company can combat this virus successfully alone – we are confident that science will win,” commented the spokesperson.
“As part of a wider scientific community, we are proud to be part of an unprecedented, worldwide collaborative effort to help bring this public health crisis to an end,” she added.
