Pfizer and BioNtech announced on Thursday they would submit their new Covid-19 vaccine for emergency authorisation in the US to become the first pharmaceutical company with a certified vaccine for the coronavirus.
Coronavirus
The two companies admitted they had collected enough analytics data to satisfy American regulators and assured the public they would have doses at the ready to be shipped as soon as the authorisation goes through.
Their new vaccine has just entered phase III clinical trials in the UK which produced results that showed the vaccine had a 90% efficacy in treating symptoms of coronavirus.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla issued a statement where he marked the event as a "critical milestone."
He said: “We now have a more complete picture of both the efficacy and safety profile of our vaccine, giving us confidence in its potential."
If approved, it will be the first jab in history to use mRNA technology, a form of genetic conditioning, which sends a response to attack the virus rather than slowly building immunity through inoculation of a weaker form of the virus.
Other vaccine candidates have entered the trial phase as well, and are showing promising results in combatting the disease in vulnerable demographics.
Among the data being submitted to the regulatory board is test information conducted on children between the ages of 12-15. The Pfizer vaccine is currently the only coronavirus candidate to have shown its effects on children during its trials.
The EU has asked for additional data from the British and German pharmaceutical companies, which has delayed a preliminary report from the European Medicines Agency.
They have admitted the European agency require far more evidence of efficacy than their American counterparts.
Both companies have the capability to product 1.35 billion doses of the vaccine by the end of 2021, including the 50 million expected to be available by the end of this year.
The EU has already secured a deal to purchase 300 million doses and the UK previously secured a deal for a further 90 million doses back in July.
Other nations who have secured deals for vaccine doses include the US and Japan.
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