The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has increased efficacy rate from 90% to 95% based on the final result of its Phase 3 clinical trial with over 43,000 participants.
Based on their report, the vaccine has taken effect 28 days after the first dose. Its efficacy was “consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics” and its observed efficacy in adults over 65 years old was more than 94%. The company also disclosed that “the only Grade 3 adverse event greater than 2% in frequency was fatigue at 3.8% and headache at 2.0%”
Pfizer is hoping that it can acquire an emergency use authorization from the United States (US) Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). It has also assured that it can supply around 50 million doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) reminded that the countries should not only focus on the vaccine but also their respective vaccination program. WHO Vaccines and Biologicals Director for Immunization Kate O’ Brien stated that “there’s an enormous amount of work to do and resources that will be needed to actually deliver the vaccines to everybody who needs these vaccines should they in fact come forward, as some of the press releases indicate they should.”
In relation with this, the Philippine FDA announced that 5 vaccine developers have expressed intent that they will conduct clinical trials in the country. But FDA Director General Eric Domingo clarified that a vaccine does not need to conduct clinical trials in the country to register. It just needs to show that its product will be effective to the Filipino people. – Report from Mark Fetalco
