There’s further good news on a vaccine for Covid 19.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer along with its partner BioNTech had previously said its vaccine was 90%effective at the earlier stage of its Phase 3 study.
It says this has now moved to 95 per cent as it’s completed this phase and 94% in people over the age of 65.
It also says trials on 43,000 volunteers found no serious safety concerns.
A few had headaches and fatigue, but that’s not unusual for a vaccine
It will now apply for US authorisation within days and will submit its data to regulatory agencies around the world.
The @Pfizer/@BioNTech_Group vaccine trial is complete for efficacy. Of 43,661 participants, 170 events, 162 in placebo group, 8 in the vaccine. That's 95% efficacy; *phenomenal*; replicated @moderna_tx, ~ as good as it gets👇https://t.co/VLNgneFDQU @damiangarde @matthewherper pic.twitter.com/vgj7upx4kD
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) November 18, 2020
Ireland To Receive 2.2 Million Doses Of Vaccine
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says Ireland will receive its fair share of the vaccine if and when they become available.
"We're signed up to the fourth one, which is is Pfizer vaccine," he said.
Minister Donnelly says 2.2 million doses of a double dose vaccine has been agree for Ireland.
This will see 1.1million people vaccinated.
This welcomed development comes on top of news from another firm Moderna which said its vaccine was also almost 95 per cent effective based on preliminary data.
All much needed good news in the fight against Covid 19 but health experts are warning they will need to see more data than just a press release.
