The Mainz-based biotech company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer have cleared the decisive hurdle for a possible approval of their corona vaccine in the USA. After a final analysis of the pivotal study, the vaccine has shown a 95 percent protection against Covid-19, the two companies announced on Wednesday.
This protection was also achieved in people over 60 years of age, who are considered a particularly vulnerable group. The data on the safety profile of the drug are convincing, the companies added. They now plan to submit the necessary documents for emergency approval to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday.
“I could imagine that approval could be granted in the USA at the end of the first half of December, second half of December,” said Biontech CEO Ugur Sahin in an interview with Reuters TV on Wednesday. If all goes well, the first people in Europe could be vaccinated in the second half of December. “If you like, a Christmas present.”
The vaccine is based – just like that of the US competitor Moderna – on the novel mRNA technology. This involves injecting a natural messenger substance, modified in the laboratory, into the human body, which allows body cells to temporarily produce individual parts of the coronavirus. The immune system reacts to this and builds up protection.
hp, Source: heute.at. picture:pixabay.com
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