Pfizer plans to seek COVID-19 vaccine authorization 'within days'

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been found to be 95 percent effective in a final analysis, and the company plans to seek emergency use authorization in just a matter of days.

Pfizer and BioNTech on Wednesday announced that a final analysis of its coronavirus vaccine's phase three trial showed it was 95 percent effective against COVID-19, as of the 170 coronavirus cases reported in the trial, only eight were among those who received the vaccine, CNN reports.

Pfizer and BioNTech are planning to apply for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for the vaccine "within days," ABC News reports. The FDA had required two months of safety data in order to seek emergency use authorization, a milestone Pfizer has achieved.

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The companies also said Wednesday that "efficacy was consistent across age, race and ethnicity demographics," and the "observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94 percent," per CNN. There have not been "any serious safety concerns related to the vaccine" reported, they said. Pfizer previously announced that an interim analysis suggested the vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective.

Moderna earlier this week also announced that its own coronavirus vaccine candidate appears to be nearly 95 percent effective. Both of these efficacy rates were far better than experts had been anticipating from a coronavirus vaccine. Once a vaccine against COVID-19 is approved, high-risk groups like health-care workers are expected to receive it first, and Pfizer and BioNTech say they can produce up to 50 million doses globally in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.