Pfizer COVID vaccine ’91 percent effective’ in new data

Pfizer and BioNTech say their COVID-19 vaccine is 91 percent effective against the virus, according to updated data from recent analysis.

According to a statement on Thursday, the efficacy was determined from updated results on the analysis of 927 confirmed symptomatic cases of COVID-19 observed in their pivotal phase three study in March.

They noted that efficacy was generally consistent across age, gender, race, and ethnicity demographics, as well as across participants with a variety of underlying conditions.

“Results from this analysis of 46,307 trial participants build upon and confirm previously released data and demonstrate strong protection against COVID-19 through six months post-second dose,” the document reads.

“From the 927 confirmed symptomatic cases of COVID-19 in the trial, 850 cases of COVID-19 were in the placebo group and 77 cases were in the BNT162b2 group, corresponding to vaccine efficacy of 91.3% (95% confidence interval [CI, 89.0, 93.2]).”

Although the new efficacy rate is four percent lower than the 95 percent efficacy which was earlier reported in November, the development comes amid global reports of several new variants of the coronavirus.

Pfizer also revealed that the vaccine was discovered to be 100 percent effective against the South Africa variant, which experts feared may be resistant to the vaccine.

“South Africa, where the B.1.351 lineage is prevalent and 800 participants were enrolled, nine cases of COVID-19 were observed, all in the placebo group, indicating vaccine efficacy of 100% (95% CI, [53.5, 100.0]),” it said.

Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, said the results provide further confidence in the vaccine’s effectiveness.

“The high vaccine efficacy observed through up to six months following a second dose and against the variant prevalent in South Africa provides further confidence in our vaccine’s overall effectiveness,” he said.

Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, said the data showed that a vaccine can be effective against different variants.

“It is an important step to further confirm the strong efficacy and good safety data we have seen so far,” he was quoted to have said.

“These data also provide the first clinical results that a vaccine can effectively protect against currently circulating variants, a critical factor to reach herd immunity and end this pandemic for the global population.”