Pfizer: "COVID-19 Vaccinations Available in the US Until Year-End... Manufacturing Already Started"

Pfizer CEO "Already Produced Hundreds of Thousands of Vaccine Doses"
AstraZeneca Announces Clinical Trial Resumption...Expectations for Year-End Launch Rise

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Pfizer, a U.S. pharmaceutical company developing a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, announced that it is possible to receive approval for the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, and that manufacturing has already begun with hundreds of thousands of doses produced. Earlier, AstraZeneca, which had reported side effects during clinical trials, also announced the resumption of its Phase 3 clinical trials, raising expectations that vaccines may be released by the end of this year or early next year.

On the 13th (local time), Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, stated in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation program, "Receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and distributing the vaccine in the U.S. by the end of the year is a possible scenario, and we are preparing for it," adding, "We have already started manufacturing the vaccine and have produced hundreds of thousands of doses." He also announced, "We will expand the Phase 3 clinical trial, which initially targeted 30,000 participants, to a maximum of 44,000." Pfizer reportedly submitted a proposal for this change to the FDA the day before.

CEO Bourla added, "To distribute by the end of the year, we need to secure key data from the ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial by the end of next month," and "The probability of knowing the efficacy of the experimental vaccine by that time is about 60%." Pfizer is developing a messenger RNA (mRNA) type COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with the German company BioNTech and is currently conducting Phase 3 clinical trials.

Earlier, AstraZeneca, which had reported side effects during vaccine clinical trials in the UK, also announced the resumption of its clinical trials. According to foreign media such as CNBC, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, jointly developing the COVID-19 vaccine, received approval from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) confirming the safety of the clinical trials and announced the resumption of trials in the UK. On the same day, Brazilian health authorities also approved the resumption of AstraZeneca's Phase 3 clinical trials. Previously, AstraZeneca's vaccine clinical trial was fully suspended in the UK after a patient developed transverse myelitis as a side effect, raising safety concerns.

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