Is Pfizer still ahead in the vaccine race and what about the others like Astra Zeneca?

I don’t think it is really about which company is ahead in the vaccine race because three players, outside of Russian Sputnik, are at very advanced stages of the vaccine. On 18 November, Pfizer and BionTech have claimed 95% effectiveness rate for their COVID vaccine based on the final analysis of the clinical trial data set.

Now, armed with the final clinical trials data, Pfizer and its partner BionTech have claimed that the vaccine protected people of all ages and ethnicities with no significant safety concerns. This is an important data point for the approving regulatory authorities.

Apart from the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine, there are two more vaccines at an advanced stage of development and testing. Moderna of Germany and AstraZeneca-Oxford of UK are also at very advanced stages of clinical human trials and efficacy is above 90% in both cases.

The Pfizer-BionTech data is based on 170 trial participants and out of these only 8 participants who got the vaccine fell ill while 162 cases were successful in treating the virus. The vaccine also cured 9 out of 10 severe cases with 94% efficacy and that is the icing.