Pfizer CEO, Board Member On COVID-19 Vaccine Progress, 'Brief, But Hard Stretch' Ahead

Monday could go down in the history books as "a great day for humanity" after Pfizer Inc. PFE released encouraging results from its COVID-19 vaccine study, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Pfizer's 'Overwhelming' Data: Pfizer's vaccine against the novel coronavirus has a 90% effectiveness rate, and this is "overwhelming," as it offers billions of people hope there is potentially "light at the end of the tunnel," Bourla said.

Pfizer also said it saw no safety concerns in its study and said it was "among the best" in the sector.

The vaccine was developed in collaboration with BioNTech SE BNTX.

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The company expects to have 50 million doses available by the end of the year, with another 1.3 billion doses next year — but only after a "significant" ramp in production in the back half of 2021, the CEO said.

Each treatment requires two doses, so 650 million people would theoretically have access to the vaccine through the end of 2021.

Gottlieb Says 'Hard Stretch' Ahead: It is important to remind the population that the U.S. is entering a "brief, but hard stretch" with the coronavirus, former FDA commissioner and Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC. 

"We need to get through this fall and this winter," he said. "2021 will look very different from 2020."