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Search for the vaccine: Biontech from Mainz and Curevac from Tübingen are at the forefront
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
While the number of new corona infections continues to rise worldwide, the race for the corona vaccine continues: After two phase 3 studies by large pharmaceutical companies had to be interrupted because of side effects in test subjects, the US pharmaceutical company is now strengthening its position Pfizer is hoping that a vaccine against the corona virus could be approved later this year.
If the study results are positive, Pfizer is aiming for approval for the vaccine, which Pfizer is developing together with the Mainz-based company Biontech, by the end of November.
At the end of October, the two partners could know whether the vaccine is effective, Pfizer boss
Albert Bourla
(58)
said
on Friday.
By the third week of November, companies could have enough data on the safety of the vaccine.
Assuming positive data, an emergency permit in the US could be requested soon after this safety milestone is reached.
Investors are getting on with vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech in the hope of getting their corona vaccine approved quickly.
The shares of the pharmaceutical companies will rise by about three percent each on Friday.
The Biontech share temporarily left the 80 euro mark behind and is approaching its record high.
AstraZeneca study suspended
So far there is no corona vaccine on the international market.
Russia became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine in August, but it was tested in humans for less than two months.
There is feverish research into vaccines against the coronavirus worldwide and US President Donald Trump has repeatedly announced that such a vaccine could be available before the presidential elections on November 3rd.
But it doesn't look like that.
Biontech and Pfizer, along with the US biotech group Moderna and the British AstraZeneca, are among the leading companies in the race for a vaccine.
AstraZeneca's study in the US is still on hold after a subject fell ill, although it has been restarted in other countries, and Moderna expects study results in November.
There is currently a lot of confusion about what steps are necessary for the development and approval of a vaccine, said Pfizer boss Bourla.
Pfizer and BioNTech therefore wanted to provide more clarity about their schedule.
Effectiveness alone is not enough for an application for approval.
The vaccine also has to be safe - for this point the US health authority FDA had only published new guidelines for an emergency approval last week, safety data are expected of at least two months after administration of the last vaccine dose.
"Expect to reach this milestone in the third week of November"
"We expect to reach this milestone in the third week of November," said Bourla.
In addition, the companies would have to submit data for approval that prove that the vaccine is consistently manufactured according to the highest quality standards.
This data should be available for security before them.
In Europe, the European Medicines Agency started the submission process for the Biontech vaccine last week in order to accelerate later approval.
BionTech had announced that if approved, up to 100 million units of the vaccine could be manufactured worldwide by the end of 2020 and around 1.3 billion units by the end of 2021.
The purchase of a production facility in Marburg, Hesse, from the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, announced last month, is also intended to significantly expand production capacities.
la / reuters