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Coronavirus

18th Nov 2020

After completed trial, Pfizer says Covid-19 vaccine is 95% effective, has no side effects

Wayne Farry

pfizer vaccine

The company will seek FDA approval ‘within days’

Pfizer has completed the trial for its coronavirus vaccine, the company has confirmed, which has shown its vaccine to have an efficacy rate of 95 percent, with no side effects.

The successful end of the trial comes a week after Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their vaccine had an efficacy rate of more than 90 percent. The latest finding show that it prevents mild and severe forms of the virus, and has a 94 percent protection rate for older people, who are more vulnerable to the virus.

Pfizer will now apply to the American Food and Drug Administration for approval “within days” as they seek to get the vaccine out to the market as quickly as possible. The vaccine requires two doses to be effective.

“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,” Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said in a statement.

The positive news from Pfizer is just the latest in a line of vaccine breakthroughs which have given reason for hope after a year in which the world has been brought to a halt by the coronavirus.

On Monday, a vaccine whose research was partly funded by music legend Dolly Parton was revealed to have an efficacy rate of close to 95 percent, while last week Russia stated that its Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective.