Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine protects against South African variant, lasts 6 months, data shows



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The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and partner biotechnology company BioNTech has been shown to be “very effective” against the coronavirus – including its variants – for at least six months after complete inoculation.

The two companies announced Thursday that the latest phase of testing – which includes an analysis of 927 confirmed symptomatic cases of COVID-19 and 46,307 participants in total – has shown the vaccine to be 91.3% effective against transmission.

In terms of “serious” illness and death, the vaccine is 95% and up to 100% effective, according to definitions established by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), respectively. the United States. .

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In addition, data from more than 12,000 people who received the Pfizer vaccine demonstrate the safety of the vaccine for a large majority.

“These data confirm the efficacy and favorable safety profile of our vaccine and position us to submit a biologics license application to the US FDA,” said Albert Bourla, chief executive officer of Pfizer, in a statement. . “The high efficacy of the vaccine observed up to six months after a second dose and against the variant prevalent in South Africa increases confidence in the overall efficacy of our vaccine.

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“This is an important step to further confirm the high efficiency and good safety data that we have seen so far, especially in a longer term follow-up,” added Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech. “These data also provide the first clinical results that a vaccine can effectively protect against currently circulating variants, a critical factor in achieving herd immunity and ending this pandemic for the global population.”

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