Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine 94% Effective In Real World: Study

A real-world study of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE and BioNTech SE BNTX showed the drug to be 94 percent effective at preventing COVID-19.

What Happened: The large-scale study conducted in Israel found the two-dose vaccine reduced symptomatic cases by 94 percent one week after the second dose and also reduced the severity of the disease by 92 percent, Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday.

The results of the study by the Clalit Research Institute and experts from Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital were published and peer-reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, which included more than a million people of whom nearly 600,000 were vaccinated, also showed the vaccine to be effective against the British strain of the coronavirus.

Why It Matters: The results are the first from a real-world study and showed the vaccine to be as efficient as in clinical trials, where the vaccine has shown a 95 percent efficacy rate. It also mirrors the results of earlier studies from Israel, which has one of the most efficient inoculation campaigns in the world.

Price Action: Shares of Pfizer closed nearly 0.5 percent lower at $33.75 on Thursday, while shares of BioNTech closed almost 2 percent higher at $114.17.

Image: Daniel Schludi via Unsplash