A COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech has shown positive results in early-stage human trials.
This is the 4th COVID-19 vaccine that has produced positive results in human testing after Moderna, CanSino Biologics, and Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Globally, around 17 vaccines are being tested on human volunteers in clinical trials.
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Following the development, BioNTech’s share price jumped from $66 to $77 while Pfizer’s share price rose from $32 to $35.
According to details, 24 healthy volunteers were administered two doses of the BNT162b1 vaccine during the US and German joint human trials.
Both doses were administered via two injections within three weeks and 3 out 4 participants experienced a fever after receiving the second dose.
However, all volunteers had developed COVID-19 antibodies in large quantities after 28 days.
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CEO BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, has said that the vaccine trial has generated the desired immune response.
The medical companies are now preparing to hold larger trials to determine whether the BNT162b1 vaccine gives protection against a real infection.
In April, Pfizer had paid $185 million to BioNTech after signing an agreement with the latter to roll out millions of doses of BNT162b1 vaccine towards the end of 2020 or in early 2021. The deal, if certain milestones are met, is expected to go beyond to $750 million.
Both companies are preparing to roll out 100 million doses of the BNT162b1 vaccine by the end of 2020 and another 1.2 billion doses by the end of 2021 from manufacturing sites in the US and Germany.