Pfizer: "High Preventive Effect Even 6 Months After Second Dose"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to maintain high preventive effectiveness even 6 months after the second dose.

Pfizer-BioNTech announced on the 1st (local time) that the Phase 3 results conducted on 46,307 people until the 13th of last month showed their vaccine's preventive effectiveness at 91.3%.

This announcement updated previous results by including data from participants who had completed the second dose and were between 1 week and 6 months post-vaccination. Among the participants, about 12,000 had completed their second dose at least 6 months prior.

In November last year, Pfizer announced Phase 3 clinical trial results on 44,000 people showing 95% preventive effectiveness. The decrease in vaccine efficacy compared to before is analyzed to be due to the spread of variant viruses.

During the clinical trial, a total of 927 COVID-19 infection cases occurred, with 850 cases in the placebo group and 77 cases in the vaccinated group, resulting in a calculated preventive effectiveness of 91.3%. Vaccine efficacy did not vary significantly by age, gender, or race.

In a trial conducted on 800 people in South Africa, the preventive effectiveness was 100%. Pfizer analyzed that their vaccine has strong efficacy against the South African variant as well.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), stated, "This announcement is an important step in further confirming the strong efficacy and good safety data of our vaccine," and evaluated, "It provides the first clinical results showing that the vaccine can also prevent currently spreading variants."

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