Pfizer claims its coronavirus vaccine is 90% effective

A volunteer receives an experimental dose of a covid vaccine last Friday in Oxaca.

The first experimental doses of the Chinese-Canadian pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics arrived this weekend in southern Mexico.Daniel Ricardez / EFE

The race to find the vaccine against covid continues at an accelerated pace just as the world has exceeded 50 million detected cases of coronavirus, in the middle of the second wave of the pandemic in Europe and with record numbers of contagion in the United States.

With 1,251,981 registered deaths, countries want to have a remedy in the shortest time possible.

The pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have affirmed this Monday that their vaccine against covid-19 is "effective in 90%", according to a first intermediate analysis without reviewing or publishing in scientific journals.

According to the announcement of the pharmaceutical company, the results have been obtained in its phase 3 trial, the last stage before formally requesting its approval.

This protective efficacy against the SARS-CoV-2 virus was achieved seven days after the second dose of the vaccine and 28 days after the first, the US pharmaceutical company indicated in a joint statement with BioNTech.

43,538 people participated in the tests announced by the company, of which only eight of the 94 analyzed in the intermediate study were infected with the coronavirus had received the vaccine in two doses three weeks apart.

These figures have led Pfizer to evaluate that its vaccine is 90% effective, well above the 50% required by the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize a coronavirus vaccine.

The tests will continue to register more than 164 cases of contagion among the participants in the trial to further specify the effectiveness rate and in age ranges ranging from 18 to 85 years.

The company expects to have this data in between 30 and 60 days.

One of the most advanced is that of AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which has already proven effective in various population ranges and whose production has begun in Australia, as announced by the country's Minister of Health, Greg Hunt.

Another 214 proposals are under development in their different phases, according to the Milken Institute.

Of them, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) registry, a dozen are in the last phase of clinical trials.

The vaccine that Australia has begun to produce is the same one that Spain has ordered 31.5 million vials from the UK consortium.

The first three million are expected to be available to the population most at risk (health personnel and elderly) starting next year.

As it is an immunization process that requires double doses, it is expected that with the first complete batch it can be distributed to about 15 million people.

The cost of each dose is 2.9 euros, of which 1.12 euros will be paid by the EU through the European Commission's emergency support fund.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA, in its acronym in English) has announced that it has begun the process to authorize the candidate of the British laboratory and that it is developing together with the University of Oxford.

It is also monitoring the Pfizer proposal.

In the case of Australia, the Government expects to begin vaccination from March, also giving priority to the elderly and workers in the health sector, according to the minister in a radio interview.

Like Europe, which has signed a centralized purchasing contract with the pharmaceutical company, they expect the vaccine to be available next year.

Like the Australian Executive, the countries have agreements with other pharmaceutical companies to ensure the availability of alternative or complementary immunization doses with other developments at an advanced stage.

Mexico has signed agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and CanSino to have 117 million doses with which to immunize 90% of its population by the end of 2021 if the vaccines are approved.

The first experimental doses of the Chinese-Canadian pharmaceutical CanSino Biologics arrived this past weekend in southern Mexico.

Of the 214 experimental vaccines, 10 are in the last phase of the three that make up the clinical trials necessary to ensure that it is effective and safe

Of the 214 experimental vaccines, 10 are in the last phase of the three that make up the clinical trials necessary to ensure that it is effective (which generates an immune response) and safe (which does not generate adverse effects).

Preclinical trials begin with investigations in cells and animals, such as mice or monkeys.

Phase 1 involves the leap to experiment with a small group of people.

In phase 2 the number of volunteers who undergo the test is expanded and tries to adjust the necessary doses (between one and two, depending on the vaccine) and confirm safety.

Phase 3 demonstrates that the vaccine is safe and effective in a trial of tens of thousands of people and of all age ranges.

The WHO registry places the aforementioned AstraZeneca vaccine in phase 3, and those of Sinovac, Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, Beijing Institute of Biological Products (both from Sinopharm), CanSino Biological, Gamaleya Research Institute, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, Novavax, Moderna and BioNTech and Fosun Pharma (Pfizer).

All research tries to get the body to develop a response to the virus attack.

Some, from the modified coronavirus to attenuate or cancel its infectious action and others, from pathogens of other infections (measles or cold) to which the RNA of the coronavirus is incorporated so that the immune system identifies the proteins of the spike. or prevent it from replicating.

It is also tested with the direct incorporation into the cell of the genetic material of the coronavirus for the immune system to react or the proteins of the pathogen that causes the covid for the body to identify them.

The WHO estimates that in summer there will be a vaccine available for risk groups and that mass immunization will begin in 2022

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, affirmed last Thursday in Valencia that the vaccination campaign in Spain against covid-19 "could be ready" within six months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a little more cautious and estimates that it will not be until the summer when a vaccine is available for risk groups.

Mass vaccination is foreseen for 2022.

In this scenario, according to the latest barometer from the Center for Sociological Research (CIS), 43.8% of Spaniards are reluctant to get vaccinated immediately, although 40.2% would be willing to be immunized as soon as an authorized dose is available by drug agencies.

You can follow