Pfizer CEO says COVID-19 vaccine likely to be ready by October this year

•  Pfizer has enrolled 23,000 patients in vaccine tests as of Wednesday
• Pfizer has said it’s on target to possess enough data for an authorization as early as October.

Pharma giant Pfizer is probably going to offer update on its Covid-19 vaccine by October-end on whether a COVID-19 vaccine (BNT162b2) it's developing is successful, and can submit it for approval immediately if that's the case, consistent with reports.

Pfizer has enrolled 23,000 patients in vaccine tests as of Wednesday, its Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in an online briefing sponsored by drug industry group International Federation of Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers & Association, reported Reuters.

Pfizer has said it’s on target to possess enough data for an authorization as early as October. based on how quickly and where it’s currently recruiting people for its 30,000-person trial, it'll probably be the primary US drugmaker with interim data, by October 15, but won’t have full results until November 17, Airfinity projects, consistent with Bloomberg reports.

The pharmaceutical company has already manufactured many thousands of doses of the vaccine candidate, including at a plant in Belgium, Bourla added. it's within the race to come up with a vaccine with its partner, Germany's BioNTech.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked state public health officials to organize to distribute a possible coronavirus vaccine to high-risk groups as soon as late October, documents published by the agency showed on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, companies testing vaccines within the U.S., where the virus has spread more quickly than in Europe for the past several months, may have a plus in potential volunteers and infections. AstraZeneca said it expects results later this year, counting on the speed of infection within the communities where it’s running trials. J&J said it still plans to start out its late-stage trial this month, with first batches of vaccine available for potential emergency use in early 2021, pending the study results. Sinovac declined to comment. Moderna declined to discuss the time-frame for its data readouts.

The drugmakers have already made deals to provide many many doses to governments round the world.

The WHO has said any vaccine should be shown to be effective in a minimum of half the people who get it to gain clearance. it'll be important to follow participants within the trials long enough to ascertain whether serious side effects emerge, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Monday. A premature approval would make it hard to continue studying the vaccine in randomized trials, she said. The agency counts 176 Covid-19 vaccines in development, of which 33 have entered human trials.

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