WEBVTT - Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate 90% Effective in Early Data

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<v Speaker 1>It's Tuesday, November ten. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>Great news on the vaccine front. Fiser's COVID nineteen vaccine

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<v Speaker 1>candidate has been shown to be nine effective in early findings.

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<v Speaker 1>The fires Are vaccine is a two shot protocol given

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<v Speaker 1>three weeks apart. They're still waiting on more data, but

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<v Speaker 1>could possibly apply for an emergency use authorization before the

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<v Speaker 1>end of November. Karen Weintraub, health reporter at USA Today

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<v Speaker 1>joins us for what to know about the latest vaccine news.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us, Karen, thanks for having me. Got

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<v Speaker 1>some great news on the vaccine front today, the fires

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<v Speaker 1>Are vaccine that's in collaboration with bio in Tech. They

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<v Speaker 1>said that their vaccine candidates is shown to be effective

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<v Speaker 1>in their early findings. They've enrolled over forty people and

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<v Speaker 1>I think about thirty nine thousand of them or so

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<v Speaker 1>have gotten the two shot protocol that is required on

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<v Speaker 1>this one, and they're saying that they're getting great results

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<v Speaker 1>on this. So Karen to us a little bit more

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<v Speaker 1>about this. Yeah, it's really exciting. It's better than most

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<v Speaker 1>people expected of the results would be. So the way

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<v Speaker 1>this works is they vaccinate a bunch of people and

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<v Speaker 1>then wait for them to get sick, and there are

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<v Speaker 1>different kind of moments at which they take a look

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<v Speaker 1>at the data. The companies don't have access to the

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<v Speaker 1>data as time goes on. It's an independent board that

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<v Speaker 1>knows half the participants are in a placebo group and

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<v Speaker 1>half aren't, and so they have to wait to look

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<v Speaker 1>and see did more people get infected in the placebo

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<v Speaker 1>group versus the non placebo group, the active vaccine group.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's what happened in this case. The vaccine was

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<v Speaker 1>effective at preventing infection in those people who got the vaccine.

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<v Speaker 1>In this first batch of data, it seemed like only

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<v Speaker 1>trial participants actually came down with covide. Is that right? Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>And that's what they do. They originally they were going

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<v Speaker 1>to give us results that's thirty two participants, but they

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<v Speaker 1>decided to go to over ninety just for more more assurance,

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<v Speaker 1>and they'll stop at a hundred and sixty four because

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<v Speaker 1>at that point, once they've been that many infections, they're

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<v Speaker 1>sure that the vaccine will be effective. When we were

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<v Speaker 1>hearing about all the development and when things get approved

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<v Speaker 1>and all they were saying that if something is fifty

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<v Speaker 1>to six effective, then that would be even good enough

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<v Speaker 1>to get some type of authorization. So this is a

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<v Speaker 1>lot better than that. And the two doses that they

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<v Speaker 1>were given are given three weeks apart. Right, that's true

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<v Speaker 1>for the Fiser vaccine. It's different for the other vaccines.

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<v Speaker 1>But yes, that's right. So what's the reaction been so far?

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<v Speaker 1>I know President Elect Joe Biden has said some stuff

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<v Speaker 1>on this. President Trump has also weighed in on this.

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<v Speaker 1>What's the reaction for all of it? Everybody's ecstatic. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>it literally couldn't be any better. There's no such thing

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<v Speaker 1>as effective vaccine. Probably won't be that effective in the

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<v Speaker 1>real world. People are sicker than they are when their

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<v Speaker 1>trial participants, or have other things going on, they wait

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<v Speaker 1>too long, other things, life intervenes. But a number like

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<v Speaker 1>this couldn't be any better. I just hunt up with

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<v Speaker 1>a doctor who said he called his parents and said,

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<v Speaker 1>I have the first really good news in nine months

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<v Speaker 1>for you, um talking about this result. That's great. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>A couple of interesting things on this, this particular that

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<v Speaker 1>seen candidate uses the m r n A and no

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<v Speaker 1>product like this has ever been approved by regulators, so

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<v Speaker 1>this would be a first if this goes all the

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<v Speaker 1>way through and gets that authorization. It's new technology that

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<v Speaker 1>luckily was under development before COVID for other conditions, and

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<v Speaker 1>when COVID came along, all they really need to do

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<v Speaker 1>is plug in the genetic code and they have a

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<v Speaker 1>new vaccine for a new disease. And that's what they

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<v Speaker 1>did in this case, and that's why they were able

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<v Speaker 1>to turn it so quickly and bring it to the

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<v Speaker 1>public so quickly. So they're waiting for a little bit

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<v Speaker 1>more data. They're saying that maybe by the end of

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<v Speaker 1>this month they can already put in the request for

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<v Speaker 1>an emergency use authorization. So today's data was effectiveness data.

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<v Speaker 1>What they're still waiting for safety data. And what the

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<v Speaker 1>FDA has required is that they have to at least

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<v Speaker 1>no median of half of the people have to have

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<v Speaker 1>been out two months from their vaccine. So if you're

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<v Speaker 1>going to have a side effect from the vaccine, it's

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<v Speaker 1>most likely to happen in the first six weeks, and

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<v Speaker 1>so they wanted to get a cushion beyond that more

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<v Speaker 1>than half the people in the trial beyond that point,

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<v Speaker 1>and that will they will hit that in the third

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<v Speaker 1>week of November. The other interesting part of this particular

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<v Speaker 1>vaccine candidate that it was not necessarily part of Operation

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<v Speaker 1>Warp Speed. The federal government didn't pay to help develop

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<v Speaker 1>this particular vaccine candidate. And beyond that, the amount of

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<v Speaker 1>doses that they're expected to produce, what do we know

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<v Speaker 1>about that? The federal government has paid for five other

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<v Speaker 1>vaccines under development to bring them to the point of

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<v Speaker 1>clinical trials, and through clinical trials, Fiser said, we've got this.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't need your money for that. But they have

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<v Speaker 1>taken almost or been promised almost two billion dollars for

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<v Speaker 1>making doses of the vaccine. The companies say that they

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<v Speaker 1>can have fifty million doses before the end of this

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<v Speaker 1>year and over a billion next year. And that's the

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<v Speaker 1>hard part too, is getting enough doses, uh, for people

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<v Speaker 1>to get their shots. And especially it's the shoot two

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<v Speaker 1>shot protocols, so you need twice as many really for

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<v Speaker 1>every person. Finally, where do we stand on some of

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<v Speaker 1>the other vaccine candidates. I know Maderna is said to

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<v Speaker 1>have some news pretty soon, and and then obviously we

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<v Speaker 1>have a few others that are already in phase three trials.

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<v Speaker 1>Maderna their first interim results. It was supposed to be

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<v Speaker 1>around now in the next week or two. It may

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<v Speaker 1>be pushed off if they wait for more results like

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<v Speaker 1>Fiser did, but we were expected to hear around now

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<v Speaker 1>from Maderna. Novavax, which is another federally funded vaccine project.

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<v Speaker 1>They should be able to start Phase three in the

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<v Speaker 1>next couple of weeks. Astra Zeneca, which is collaborating with

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<v Speaker 1>Oxford University. There in phase three Johnson and Johnson tonofi Um,

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<v Speaker 1>but they haven't started to Phase three trials. Yeah. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, all in all, great news on this front.

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<v Speaker 1>So we'll see how this develops. It It seems like

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<v Speaker 1>it's gonna start happening really fast, and then it will

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<v Speaker 1>take some time still to get all those vaccine doses

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<v Speaker 1>out to the public. But we're on our way. Karen Wine,

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<v Speaker 1>trial health reporter at USA Today, Thank you very much

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<v Speaker 1>for joining us. Thank you. I'm Astar Ramirez and this

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<v Speaker 1>has been reopening America. Don't forget today's big news stories.

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<v Speaker 1>He can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast

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