Third dose Pfizer vaccine, 95.6% efficacy despite Delta

First data on the third dose of anti-covid vaccine released by Pfizer and BioNTech: the relative effectiveness of the vaccine after the booster, the two companies say, is 95.6% against the disease, in a situation in which the Sars Delta variant -CoV-2 is the prevalent strain. These are the topline results of a randomized and controlled phase 3 study that evaluates the efficacy and safety of a 30 µg ‘booster’ dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in more than 10 thousand over 16. In the trial the booster was administered to people who had received the two-dose primary series of the same vaccine. And the third injection “restored the protection of the vaccine against Covid to the high levels reached after the second dose”, assure the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech, “showing a relative vaccine efficacy of 95.6%, compared to those who have not received a recall. ” The findings “provide further evidence of the benefits of boosters. We aim to keep people well protected against this disease,” said Albert Bourla, Pfizer president and CEO, who ensures continuity in the commitment “to increase global access and diffusion “of the product” among the unvaccinated “, and reiterates that it also considers the role of boosters in tackling the pandemic to be” fundamental “. “We look forward to sharing this data with health authorities – he adds – and to work together to determine how they can be used to support the launch of booster doses around the world.” Data that, says Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech “add to the body of scientific evidence that suggests that a booster dose of our vaccine can help protect a large population of people from this virus and its variants” . In the trial, the median time between the second dose and booster administration (or placebo for a second group) was approximately 11 months. The median follow-up was 2.5 months. During the study period, there were 5 cases of Covid in the augmented group and 109 in the non-augmented group. The mean age of the participants was 53 years, with 55.5% aged 16 to 55 and 23.3% over 65. Multiple subgroup analyzes showed efficacy to be consistent regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity or comorbid conditions, it is specified in a note in which the terms of the study were summarized. The adverse event profile was “generally consistent with other clinical safety data for the vaccine, with no safety concerns identified,” it reads. The companies plan to share this data with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Fda), with the European Medicines Agency Ema and other regulatory agencies around the world “as soon as possible”.