Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine now 95% effective and meets safety criteria

The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine has met the safety requirements needed for emergency authorisation, and has now proved to be 95% effective against Covid-19.

The two pharmaceutical companies plan to submit the vaccine to US regulators for approval “within days.”

There have been “no serious safety concerns” reported, and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are ready to fast track authorisation for the vaccine roll-out.

Once approved the vaccine will be ready to roll-out to the most vulnerable from 1 December, the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock said.

Last week Pfizer and BioNTech announced the vaccine is 90% effective, now final analysis shows the injection has an efficacy of 95%, from infection within 28-days of the first jab.

Adults who are aged over 65-years old and who are generally more vulnerable, the vaccine is 94% effective.

The side effects of the vaccine range from 2% reporting a headache to 3.75 experiencing fatigue, out of the 43,000 participants.

The UK government has ordered 40m doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.

Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, told a Downing Street briefing on Wednesday, “We are planning for different types of vaccine and the plans around the delivery mechanism, with this contingent upon the particular vaccine and the data that comes from the trials and the advice from regulators.

“We will be saying more about this in the next few days but meanwhile we are working hard, we are ensuring we have a workforce to do this, I have talked about general practice who are stepping up for this, but St John’s are also recruiting volunteers, so we have additional vaccine workforce.”

Pfizer chairman and chief executive Dr Albert Bourla said, “The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic.

“We continue to move at the speed of science to compile all the data collected thus far and share with regulators around the world.”