Pfizer Announces "90% Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccine"... US and European Stocks Surge

S&P 500 Index Futures Surge 3.6% Before Opening
UK FTSE 100 Rises About 5%

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunbyeol Kim] On the 9th (local time), major European stock markets are all surging following news that the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by multinational pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech has shown high efficacy.

As of 12:10 PM London time, the FTSE 100 index is trading at 6,169.57, up 4.38% from the previous trading day.

The French CAC 40 index has surged 6.41% to 5,278.71, and the German DAX index is up 5.41% at 13,154.96.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index is recording a 6.15% increase at 3,401.01.

In the New York stock market, major index futures have been rising even before the opening. The S&P 500 index is up 3.6%. New York stock index futures initially rose on news that Joe Biden was elected President of the United States and have further increased their gains following the COVID-19 vaccine news.

Pfizer of the United States and BioNTech of Germany, who are jointly developing the COVID-19 vaccine, announced on the day that "initial analysis results of the COVID-19 vaccine have demonstrated an efficacy of over 90%."

According to reports from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The New York Times (NYT) on the day, the two companies analyzed 94 patients who exhibited one or more COVID-19 symptoms and confirmed an efficacy rate exceeding 90%.

They also stated, "No serious safety concerns have been observed in the Phase 3 clinical trial results," and added, "If the vaccine is deemed safe, we plan to request authorization from health authorities to sell the vaccine before the end of this month."

Pfizer is currently conducting studies to secure two months of safety data. The results are expected to be released in the third week of this month, and if there are no issues with the two-month safety data, Pfizer intends to apply for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within this month.

Executives from both companies stated that if the approval process proceeds smoothly, they can manufacture vaccines for 15 to 20 million people by the end of the year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.