Pfizer not yet prepared to deliver COVID-19 vaccine data

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: Reuters


• Date: 27 Oct,2020

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on October 27 that it wasn’t yet ready to release data in the late-stage trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate it is growing with Germany’s BioNTech SE.

Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla has said the company could release data on whether or not the vaccine works as early as this month, but the firm said in a presentation that the independent data monitoring board that will determine whether or not the trial was successful hasn’t conducted any interim efficacy analyses yet.

Shares were flat at $37.93 before the opening bell.

US President Donald Trump had said a vaccine could be available before the Nov. 3 election, but lately his administration has highlighted that one will be prepared this year.

Pfizer expects to be the first US drugmaker to unveil successful data from a late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial, ahead of rival Moderna Inc..

The data monitoring board is scheduled to make its first evaluation of the vaccine’s operation after 32 participants at the trial become infected with the novel coronavirus.

As the pandemic crimps demand for specific Pfizer treatments and damages global economies, investors are keenly focused on seeing the late-stage study data of the vaccine candidate being developed by BioNTech.

Overall sales fell 4.3% in the third quarter, hurt by a plunge in sales of its off-patent pain medication Lyrica and a $500 million hit to sales from the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales of cancer medication Ibrance grew 6 percent to $1.36 billion, beating analyst estimates of $1.39 billion, despite increased competition from Eli Lilly’s Verzenio. Excluding items, Pfizer earned 72 cents per share, beating analysts estimates of 71 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.