The German company Biontech and the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have applied for emergency approval for their coronavirus vaccine with the US Food and Drug Administration. The companies reported this today in a joint statement.
Deliveries of the vaccine, called BNT162b2, could begin at the end of this year, if approved, Biontech said. Biontech and Pfizer are the first western manufacturers to publish promising study results and apply for emergency approval from the FDA.
The companies had previously announced that the vaccination would offer 95 percent protection against Covid-19. The vaccine works similarly well across all age groups and other demographic differences and shows practically no serious side effects, the companies announced after their final analyzes.
The FDA must now review the application. How long this could take is unclear. However, US experts were confident that there could be a result of the audit before the end of the year. Due to the particular urgency, an accelerated approval process applies.
