Pfizer, one of the biggest multinational pharmaceutical companies, has recently been making headlines with the promising results of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, placing the company in the forerunner of the global coronavirus vaccine race.
Earlier this week, Pfizer announced the early interim results of its recent experimental COVID-19 vaccine trial, stating that it is 90% effective in preventing the virus with no serious adverse effects.
Pfizer’s vaccine candidate, which is developed in association BioNTech, is currently in its Phase III (late-stage) clinical trial that has involved more than 43,000 participants across the world.
Pfizer and BioNTech said their next step is to reach out to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to get Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). However, the companies have already started manufacturing the vaccine in bulk.
The New York-based pharma giant has said that it would provide more than 50 million doses worldwide by the end of 2020, with an additional 1.3 billion doses in the first quarter of 2021.
Older individuals and frontline health workers will be the first to receive the vaccine if the FDA approved it. Please note that one should receive two doses of the vaccine to get the necessary immunity against the virus. This indicates that it could still take a while for everybody to achieve herd immunity.
About Pfizer
Pfizer is more than 150 years old. Founded in 1849, the company introduced an almond-toffee flavored medicine for intestinal worms, which was its first product.
The company became a household name after it introduced a blockbuster drug Viagra in 1998. Originally advised for the treatment of high blood pressure in the lungs, the condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension, Viagra continues to be one of the leading erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs. It has been over 22 years and still men with ED prefer using the little blue pill.
Pfizer has also been largely focused on cancer drugs, anti-inflammatory drugs, drugs for autoimmune disorders, vaccines, and drugs for rare diseases. In 2019, the net income of Pfizer was more than $16 billion, though they had the highest drug sales.
About BioNTech
Headquartered in Germany, BioNTech is a biotechnology company dedicated to the development and manufacture of active immunotherapies for serious disorders.
Established in 2008, BioNTech was founded by two German scientists and an Austrian oncologist.
In August 2018, the company announced its collaboration with Pfizer to develop mRNA-based vaccines for the prevention of influenza. The article originally appeared on Tech Round, UK.
