Pfizer: Distribution of the Corona vaccine may start before the end of the year

Pfizer and Biontech, the drugmaker, said that next month they may obtain approval from US and European regulatory agencies for the emergency use of their Covid-19 vaccine, after the results of final trials showed that the vaccine’s success rate is 95 percent and there are no serious side effects.

Biontech CEO Ugur Shaheen told Reuters TV that the US Food and Drug Administration may grant approval for the emergency use of the vaccine before the end of the first half of December or the beginning of the second half of the month.

He added that conditional approval from the European Union would likely be obtained in the second half of December.

"If all goes well, I can expect to get approval in the second half of December and start distribution before Christmas, but only if things go positive," he said.

The success rate of the vaccine, which the American Pfizer and its German partner, Biontech, worked on is the highest of any vaccine tested in the last clinical stages so far, and experts say it is a great achievement in the race to end the pandemic.

Pfizer said that 170 volunteers in the trial, which included more than 43,000, were infected with Covid-19, but 162 of them got a placebo vaccine, which means that the effectiveness of the vaccine is 95 percent.

Of the ten who became severely infected from Covid-19, one received the vaccine.