The man behind the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine said he’s optimistic that massive drug distribution efforts will return the world to a sense of normalcy by next winter.
CEO Ugur Sahin, who cofounded BioNTech with his wife, Ozlem Tureci, said it will be “absolutely essential” to immunize the majority of the population by next fall if that goal is going to be met.
“I’m confident that this will happen because there are a number of vaccine companies helping us to increase the supply and so that we could have a normal winter next year,” Sahin said.
Sahin told the BBC that his vaccine, which early analysis has shown to be more than 90% effective, could potentially halve the transmission rate of the coronavirus.
“I’m very confident that transmission between people will be reduced by such a highly effective vaccine,” Sahin said. “Maybe not 90%, but maybe 50%. But we should not forget that even that could result in a dramatic reduction of the pandemic spread.”
Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine candidate is still completing phase three trials before it can apply for an emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration. The EUA would allow the companies to distribute the vaccine without undergoing the full FDA approval process, which can take nearly a year to complete, according to the FDA.
The companies said they will apply for an EUA by the end of November. Even if the vaccine is authorized this year, producing and distributing enough of the vaccine to have a significant effect on mitigating the virus’s spread will take time.
“This winter will be hard, he said. “So, we will not have a big impact on the infection numbers with our vaccine in this winter.”
Sahin and Tureci founded BioNTech in 2008 with Christopher Huber, one of Sahin’s former professors. Until recently, the company focused on developing cancer therapies but redirected its efforts to the coronavirus amid the initial outbreak early this year. Their 40-person team developed 20 different vaccine candidates before contacting Pfizer to assist with conducting large-scale clinical trials.
On Monday, another pharmaceutical company, Moderna, released early data from its clinical trial. An independent data analysis found that its vaccine has been nearly 95% effective. Moderna said it will also apply for an EUA in the coming weeks.
In the United States, more than 11 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and over 246,000 people have died from the disease. The latest surge has led many states to reintroduce coronavirus restrictions and strengthened mask mandates. In Chicago, health officials told residents to “cancel traditional Thanksgiving” plans.
