WHO chief hails Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine news as 'encouraging'
The World Health Organization chief hailed as "encouraging" Pfizer and BioNTech's announcement Monday that their vaccine has in trials proved 90-percent effective in preventing Covid-19 infections.
The two pharmaceutical companies said the vaccine they have jointly developed had during Phase 3 trials provided protection to nearly all patients seven days after the second of two vaccine doses.
"We welcome the encouraging vaccine news from @pfizer & @BioNTech_Group & salute all scientists & partners around the who are developing new safe, efficacious tools to beat #COVID19," WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a tweet.
"The world is experiencing unprecedented scientific innovation & collaboration to end the pandemic," he said.
ALSO READ:
Pfizer says Covid-19 vaccine 90% effective in Phase 3 trial
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 the initial evidence of our vaccine's ability to prevent Covid-19," Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.
As of mid-October, the WHO has identified 42 "candidate vaccines" at the stage of clinical trials, up from 11 in mid-June.
Ten of them were at the most advanced phase 3 stage, in which a vaccine's effectiveness is tested on a large scale, generally tens of thousands of people across several continents.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said in a tweet Monday that the news from Pfizer and BioNTech should "encourage all developers of #COVID19 vaccines to continue with clinical trials."
"The world needs several safe, effective & affordable vaccines to end this pandemic," she said.
