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FRANCE – A vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in ongoing phase 3 trials, the companies announced Monday.
Protection in patients was achieved seven days after the second of two doses and 28 days after the first, according to preliminary findings.
“The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides initial evidence of the ability of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19,” Pfizer President and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.
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“We are a significant step closer to giving people around the world a much-needed breakthrough to help end this global health crisis.
“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most,” Bourla added.
In much of the world, COVID-19 infection rates are skyrocketing to record levels, with hospital intensive care units filling up and the number of deaths increasing as well.
Based on supply projections, the companies said they expect to supply up to 50 million doses of vaccines worldwide in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.
