World Health Organisation chief hails Pfizer coronavirus vaccine as ‘encouraging’
The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday hailed Pfizer and BioNTech‘s announcement on the efficacy of their coronavirus vaccine as ‘encouraging’.
“We welcome the encouraging vaccine news from Pfizer and BioNTech Group and salute all scientists and partners around the who are developing new safe, efficacious tools to beat COVID19.” Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.
We welcome the encouraging vaccine news from @pfizer & @BioNTech_Group & salute all scientists & partners around the 🌍 who are developing new safe, efficacious tools to beat #COVID19. The 🌍 is experiencing unprecedented scientific innovation & collaboration to end the pandemic!
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 9, 2020
Earlier on Monday, U.S. pharmaceutical Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2 is more than 90 percent effective based on results of initial third-phase a large-scale trial.
“The mRNA-based vaccine candidate demonstrated evidence of efficacy against COVID-19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on the first interim efficacy analysis conducted on November 8, 2020 by an external, independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) from the Phase 3 clinical study,” Pfizer said in a statement.
UPDATE: We are proud to announce, along with @BioNTech_Group, that our mRNA-based #vaccine candidate has, at an interim analysis, demonstrated initial evidence of efficacy against #COVID19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
— Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) November 9, 2020
A coronavirus vaccine may be rolled out within March next year to the most vulnerable, which could fundamentally change the course of the pandemic, Reuters quoted a senior WHO official, as saying, on Monday.
Addressing WHO’s annual ministerial assembly, Bruce Aylward said that the initial results announced earlier in the day by Pfizer were “very positive”.
“The ACT Accelerator programme, which is an alliance between the World Health Organization, countries including France and organizations such as the World Bank, aims to fundamentally change the direction of the pandemic by March as more tests, treatments and vaccines become available,” the WHO senior advisor added.
Pfizer vaccine results ‘extraordinary’: Fauci
Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, said Pfizer’s vaccine to fight the deadly virus will have a “major impact” on the battle against the pandemic.
The efficacy of the Pfizer drug candidate being more than 90 percent “is just extraordinary,” Fauci told reporters on Monday.
Moderna may have similar results to the Pfizer vaccine because it is also based on mRNA technology, Bloomberg cited Fauci as saying.
