JAB BREAKTHROUGH
Pfizer Covid vaccine is now 95% effective and could get sign off ‘within days’ for mid-December roll out
PFIZER'S Covid vaccine is now 95 per cent effective, has passed safety checks and will be ready for sign off "in days".
It means the first jabs could be rolled out within weeks if regulators give it the green light.
4
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has met the safety criteria needed for emergency authorisation, the firms said today.
And company bosses plan to submit the vaccine to the regulators in the US for emergency use approval "within days" before sharing with others around the world.
Pfizer chairman, Dr Albert Bourla, said: "The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic.
"We continue to move at the speed of science to compile all the data collected thus far and share with regulators around the world."
Roll out 'within weeks'
UK regulators are poised to fast-track authorisation of the vaccine.
That could mean it'll be rolled out to priority groups in just a month.
The UK Government has 40 million doses of the Pfizer jab on pre-order, with 10 million available for roll out before Christmas.
It means the two-dose jab could be used to immunise five million Brits by the end of the year, with enough doses to protect 20 million people in total.
A Government spokesman said: "The MHRA will carry out their crucial work to assess whether the vaccine meets robust standards of safety, effectiveness and quality once it receives the full data from the company.
"The NHS stands ready to roll out an approved vaccine to high risk groups based on the advice of the JCVI."
In an important step the latest findings show the jab does work in the elderly, with efficacy in the over 65s found to be 94 per cent.
Prof Stephen Evans, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "It seems there is some evidence that in older adults there is also very good efficacy with minimal side effects.
"This is very good news, not just for this vaccine. But it also makes it more likely that other vaccines will also be reasonably effective in older adults."
Interim guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advises that care home residents, care home workers and those over 80 should be first in line to get any Covid vaccine.
Now Pfizer has published its safety data it is likely the JCVI will be able to confirm the priority order for the UK roll out.
The final analysis comes just a week after Pfizer became the first company to complete its phase-three trial.
It was found to be more than 90 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19 at the time.
4
4
Who will get the first Covid vaccines?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has examined data on who suffers the worst outcomes from coronavirus and who is at highest risk of death.
Its interim guidance, which assumes the jab is safe and effective in all groups, says the order of priority should be:
- Older adults in a care home and care home workers
- All those aged 80 and over and health and social care workers, though they may move up the list
- Anyone 75 and over
- People aged 70 and over
- All those aged 65 and over
- High-risk adults under 65
- Moderate-risk adults under 65
- All those aged 60 and over
- All those 55 and over
- All those aged 50 and over
- The rest of the population, with priority yet to be determined.
The JCVI said the prioritisation could change if the first jab were not deemed suitable for, or effective in, older adults.
On Monday, Moderna followed suit and revealed its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 per cent effective.
Matt Hancock confirmed on Monday evening that the Government had managed to secure five million doses but warned they won't be available until spring "at the earliest".
The Health Secretary has said the NHS will be ready by December 1 to start the roll out of any jab approved.
Prof Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, today told a Downing Street briefing that the health service is "working hard" to ensure it has the means to deliver the vaccines.
Better results than expected
The better-than-expected data from the two vaccines have raised hopes for an end to a resurgent pandemic that has killed more than 1.3 million people globally and wreaked havoc upon economies and daily life.
Pfizer said on Wednesday there had been 170 cases of the disease in its trial of more 43,000 volunteers, of which 162 were observed in the placebo arm and eight were in the vaccine group.
Ten people developed severe Covid-19, one of whom received the vaccine.
4
Most read in Health News
It also said the vaccine was well-tolerated and that side effects were mostly mild to moderate and cleared up quickly.
The only severe adverse event that affected more than two per cent of those vaccinated was fatigue, which affected 3.8 per cent of recipients after the second dose.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Older adults tended to report fewer and milder solicited adverse events following vaccination.
Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion in 2021.