Washington: Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that their vaccine has more than 90% efficiency in preventing SARS CoV-2 in people who were not affected by a coronavirus in the past.
The data was published by the company regarding the result of their late-stage trial.
"Today is a great day for science and humanity," said Dr Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO. "We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development," he added.
The published results were an outcome of an analysis by the Data Monitoring Committee, which is an independent group of experts who make sure the trials in the US are being done safely and responsibly.
According to the analysis, 94 confirmed COVID-19 infections were spotted in the trail of 43,538 participants. Observing the case split between people who got the vaccine versus people who got the placebo helped in revealing the efficacy of the vaccine to of 90%.
It goes without saying that the final percentage of the vaccine may vary from person to person however, medical professionals are still collecting data to strengthen the safety of the vaccine.
With the efficacy result of the vaccine, we are significantly nearing a cure to this virus. It could be a breakthrough in the field of science and medicine, proving to be a boon to mankind.
There are more than 170 vaccines in progress today, but closer to home we have our hopes pinned on India's first vaccine called Covaxin which is yet to undergo phase 3 trial.