After final trial results showed a 95 per cent success rate, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech said, on Wednesday, that they could get emergency authorization for the vaccine from the US and European Union by Christmas.
BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin told Reuters TV that the US FDA could grant emergency-use by mid-December. He added that the same could be possible for the European Union as well.
The US-based pharma major Pfizer had announced that its Covid-19 vaccine candidate was found to be 95% effective in the final analysis of the late-stage clinical trials.
The firm said it was planning to seek regulatory approval within days.
"The safety milestone required by the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) has been achieved. To date, no serious safety concerns related to the vaccine candidate have been reported," Pfizer said.
The drugmaker in a statement released yesterday, said that the efficacy of the vaccine was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics, suggesting the probablity of it being usable worldwide.
The officials from Pfizer said that they were already communicating with US President-elect Joe Biden's transition team about the vaccine, as part of their ongoing effort in keeping interested parties updated on the vaccine and its subsequent distribution strategy.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continues to stall the transition process for the new administration.
Based on current projections, global production of up to 50 million vaccine doses are expected in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses by end of 2021.
The announcement by Pfizer comes days after another biotech company Moderna said that the interim analysis of the phase 3 trial of its potential coronavirus vaccine had shown that it's 94.5% effective.
(With inputs from Reuters)