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By mid-October, the WHO had identified 42 “candidate vaccines” in the clinical trial stage, up from 11 in mid-June.
GENEVA – The director of the World Health Organization hailed as “encouraging” Monday’s announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine has been shown to be 90% effective in trials to prevent COVID-19 infections.
The two drug companies said the vaccine they developed jointly during the Phase 3 trials provided protection to almost all patients seven days after the second of two doses of vaccine.
“We welcome the encouraging news about vaccines from @pfizer & @BioNTech_Group and salute all scientists and partners who are developing new, safe and effective tools to defeat # COVID19,” said WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a tweet.
“The world is experiencing unprecedented scientific innovation and collaboration to end the pandemic,” he said.
By mid-October, the WHO had identified 42 “candidate vaccines” in the clinical trial stage, up from 11 in mid-June.
Ten of them were in the most advanced phase 3, in which the efficacy of a vaccine is tested on a large scale, usually tens of thousands of people on several continents.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a tweet on Monday that news from Pfizer and BioNTech should “encourage all # COVID19 vaccine developers to continue clinical trials.”
“The world needs several safe, effective and affordable vaccines to end this pandemic,” he said.
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