A Coronavirus vaccine by drug giant Pfizer is more than 90% effective in preventing the disease and has been hailed "a great day for science and humanity."

The pharmaceutical company, which has a base in Sandwich, found just 94 of 43,538 participants contracted COVID-19 in trials that started in July.

Participants received two doses of either the immunisation or a placebo, with 90% of these protected from the virus within 28 days of having their jabs.

In the race to find a vaccine against the disease, Pfizer is developing the medicine with BioNTech.

The companies expect 50 million vaccine doses will be made in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021 if it gets emergency use authorization (EUA).

A submission for (EUA) will be made to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) soon after the required safety milestone is achieved - expected to occur in the third week of November.

In the meantime the clinical trial will continue until 164 cases are confirmed in order to collect further data and characterize the vaccine candidate’s performance against other study endpoints.

Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr Albert Bourla said: "Today is a great day for science and humanity.

"The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19”.

“We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.

"With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis.

"We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks.”

It comes after vice president of drug product design at Pfizer, Brian Henry said he was "blown away" at the speed in which his employees at Sandwich identified a COVID-preventing molecule in May.

Prof. Ugur Sahin, BioNTech co-founder and CEO said: “The first interim analysis of our global Phase 3 study provides evidence that a vaccine may effectively prevent COVID-19.

"This is a victory for innovation, science and a global collaborative effort,”

“When we embarked on this journey 10 months ago this is what we aspired to achieve. Especially today, while we are all in the midst of a second wave and many of us in lockdown, we appreciate even more how important this milestone is on our path towards ending this pandemic and for all of us to regain a sense of normality. "

Pfizer and BioNTech will continue to be monitor participants for long-term protection and safety for an additional two years after their second dose which happened yesterday.

The companies are working to prepare the necessary safety and manufacturing data to submit to the FDA to demonstrate the safety and quality of the vaccine product produced.

Dr Bourla added: “I want to thank the thousands of people who volunteered to participate in the clinical trial, our academic collaborators and investigators at the study sites, and our colleagues and collaborators around the world who are dedicating their time to this crucial endeavor.

“We could not have come this far without the tremendous commitment of everyone involved.”

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