Pfizer Inc. said Wednesday it will ask health regulators to authorize its experimental Covid-19 vaccine within days, after reporting the shot was 95% effective in its pivotal study and showing signs of being safe.
The company’s plans mean the shot is on track to go into distribution by the end of the year, if the regulators permit.
Out of 170 adult volunteers in the nearly 44,000-subject trial who developed Covid-19 with at least one symptom, 162 received a placebo, while eight got the vaccine, according to Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
The resulting 95% effectiveness rate puts the shot’s performance on par with shingles and measles vaccines. It is also consistent with the vaccine’s showing in a peek last week at how it did in an analysis of the first 94 subjects to fall sick.
Researchers haven’t found any serious safety issues, the companies said. The vaccine appeared to be well tolerated following a review of data from 8,000 study subjects, the companies said.
