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The vaccine developed by the German company Biontech together with Pfizer offers more than 90 percent protection against the Covid-19 disease, announced Biontech. There were no serious side effects.
For the first time, there are interim results from the study phase that are decisive for the approval of a corona vaccine that is relevant for Europe. German biotech company Biontech and pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced Monday that their vaccine offers more than 90 percent protection against Covid-19 disease.
There were no serious side effects. Biontech and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are expected to apply for approval from the US FDA starting next week.
The BNT162b2 vaccine had been developed by Biontech in the “Lightspeed” project since mid-January. The phase 3 study, crucial for its approval, began in several countries in late July. According to the manufacturer, protection by vaccination is achieved one week after the second injection. More than 43,500 people have received at least one of the two injections, three weeks apart.
Accelerated approval process
In the study, a total of 94 cases of the disease were confirmed as of Sunday. In their interim analysis, the study authors did not explain exactly how many of the patients received the vaccine. Based on the high 90 percent success rate, the majority of these cases should come from the group that received a placebo. According to the information, the results will only be finally evaluated when a total of 164 cases is reached. In addition, it will be verified to what extent the vaccine not only protects against Covid-19, but also against the serious courses of the disease. In general, both the protective effect and the side effects should be observed over a period of two years.
An expedited approval process is applied to the corona vaccine due to its particular urgency. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products can submit individual reports on the quality, safety and efficacy of a preparation to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) even before the full application for approval. In addition to Biontech, the British-Swedish company Astrazeneca started a continuous review process for its candidate vaccine some time ago. Astrazeneca has not released any Phase III data yet. Nothing can be said about the schedule, a spokeswoman said Monday.
50 million doses of vaccines by the end of this year
The Biontech preparation is a so-called RNA vaccine. It contains genetic information about the pathogen, from which the body produces a virus protein, in this case the surface protein that the virus uses to enter cells. The goal of vaccination is to stimulate the body to produce antibodies against this protein to intercept viruses before they enter cells and multiply.
Biontech and Pfizer hope to be able to provide up to 50 million doses of vaccines worldwide this year, and next year they expect up to 1.3 billion doses.
Countries like Russia, China and recently Bahrain have already launched vaccines with restrictions and are already vaccinating parts of the population with them. But how well these vaccines actually protect and what side effects they can have is currently largely open.
Stock market euphoria in reaction
The likely significant success in the development of the corona vaccine gave a strong boost to European stock exchanges on Monday. The leading euro zone index, EuroStoxx 50, gained 4.9 percent to 3,362.09 points.
For the first time since mid-October, the DAX regained the 13,000 point mark. At lunchtime, it last rose 4.6 percent to 13,051.63 points and things continued to climb sharply in Vienna, Paris, London, Milan and Madrid. ATX was up 6.4 percent shortly after 1 p.m.
(WHAT / dpa)
