Pfizer Announces COVID Vaccine Hits 95% Efficacy In Phase 3 Study

Pfizer announced Wednesday morning that its march towards a COVID-19 vaccine is on track and that its Phase 3 study showed the vaccine candidate "has met all primary efficacy endpoints," adding that the vaccine had "95% efficacy beginning 28 days after the first dose."

Pfizer and biotech company Moderna now say they both have vaccines with a 94.5% or greater efficacy. The latest vaccine news sent Dow futures rising Wednesday morning. Pfizer stock was up 3.14% premarket on the news.

"Additionally, the safety milestone required by @US_FDA for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) has been achieved. To date, no serious safety concerns related to the vaccine candidate have been reported," Pfizer said.

"Within days, we plan to submit a request to the @US_FDA for an EUA based on the totality of safety and efficacy data collected, as well as manufacturing data relating to the quality and consistency of the vaccine candidate. We also plan to submit the efficacy and safety data from the study for peer-review in a scientific journal once analysis of the data is completed."

Moderna said this week that its vaccine would hold an advantage over Pfizer's candidate in that it wouldn't require "ultra-cold storage" and said standard refrigeration should suffice for storing the drug for up to six months.