The company, which has developed the most promising vaccine to date, expects the epidemic to ease next summer.

BioNtech and pharmaceutical group Pfizer announced earlier this month that the effectiveness of their jointly developed vaccine will exceed 90 percent based on the results of clinical trials and studies to date. Professor Ugur Sahin, BioNtech’s co-founder and CEO, told BBC British Public Service Television on Sunday in a public-political magazine program that the vaccine would dramatically reduce the spread of the coronavirus epidemic even if it were effective. 50 percent.

He added that there were no side effects during the trials that would have required the vaccine trial to stop. Subjects who experienced any adverse effects experienced no more than mild or moderate pain at the injection site for a few days or also had a short-term mild or moderate fever. The director of BioNTech told the BBC on Sunday that

this winter will remain harsh, the new vaccine will not have a significant impact on the number of infections this winter.

He said that if all goes well, the two companies developing the vaccine will start shipping the vaccine later this year, early next year.

According to Professor Sahin, the goal is to have more than 300 million doses of the vaccine on the market by April, and this will already have a notable initial impact on the spread of the epidemic. However, for the arrival of next summer, a serious impact is expected, especially since the summer will help curb the spread of the epidemic anyway, said the CEO of BioNtech. He stressed that the most important thing is to achieve a high vaccination rate at the beginning of the next autumn-winter period. Professor Sahin said he is confident this will happen, especially since many other companies are also developing vaccines. He stated that based on all this, life can return to normal next winter.

When asked how long the vaccine could remain effective after administration, the head of BioNtech said that studies were still needed to determine this. However, he added that it may not be a serious problem to have to be vaccinated from time to time, for example every year, but it could also be that the population only needs to be revaccinated every two to five years. Professor Sahin also emphasized that he did not consider that a mutation could drastically alter the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19 disease.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a recent press conference that the British government has already ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. According to Johnson, Britain will be at the forefront of the international field in terms of vaccine numbers per capita, and if the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine passes all strict safety checks, the UK government, led by the Public Health Service ( NHS), the vaccine will begin nationwide. dissemination. Without mentioning details, he added that the government had ordered an additional 300 million doses of five other vaccines in development.

Cover image: Getty Images