First US patients dosed with potential coronavirus vaccine, Pfizer says after announcing experimental trial

Pharmaceutical giant hopes to have 'millions' of Covid-19 vaccines in production by the end of the year

The first patients in the United States to be treated with a potential coronavirus vaccine have been dosed with the experimental treatment as part of a new trial announced by the US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

A pool of adults age 18 to 55 received the first round of BNT162, containing genetic material that may be capable of creating an immune response to the novel virus, the company said on Tuesday. The US study followed an additional German-based human trial which began late last month.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement: “With our unique and robust clinical study program underway, starting in Europe and now the US, we look forward to advancing quickly and collaboratively with our partners at BioNTech and regulatory authorities to bring a safe and efficacious vaccine to the patients who need it most.”

He added: “The short, less than four-month time frame in which we’ve been able to move from preclinical studies to human testing, is extraordinary.”

If successful, Pfizer said it hoped to test as many as 360 people and move on to older groups of patients, as health officials estimated a vaccine would still take as long as 18 months before it could be available for mass distribution.

The first human trials for a potential coronavirus vaccine began in March, and were the result of a partnership between the National Institutes of Health and Modern, a biotech firm. Other companies have also launched human trials for possible vaccines, including Johnson & Johnson, which said it could have as many as 900 million doses of its own vaccine on the market by early 2021.

However, the fate of those vaccines all depend on the ongoing trials. The US Food and Drug Administration has not approved any form of treatment for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel virus. Symptoms include respiratory issues, a loss of smell and taste and other common side effects associated with a mild case of the flue, according to the US Centre for Disease Control.

Other drugs that have been touted by some to potentially treat coronavirus have not proven effective, like hydroxychloroquine, a medication used to treat Malaria that was seemingly endorsed by President Donald Trump as he repeatedly claimed it may be effective in treating the novel virus. Studies have not shown the drug to effectively treat Covid-19, and many patients have revealed severe symptoms after being dosed with the treatment.

Some scientists have suggested a coronavirus vaccine will not effectively prevent a second wave of infections from sweeping across the country, due to inconsistencies with how coronavirus responds to vaccines in ways unlike other typical viruses.

“If you’re hoping a vaccine is going to be a knight in shining armour saving the day, you may be in for a disappointment,” David States, chief medical officer of the US health technology company Angstrom Bio, wrote in a tweet. “A vaccine will need to induce durable high level immunity, but coronaviruses often don’t induce that kind of immunity.”

Still, Pfizer has said it hoped to have “millions” of vaccines produced by the end of the year.