Pfizer Vaccine News

[Heppenheimer]

Also, there is a well-established heirarchy of medical evidence. The evidence for hydroxychloroquine came from a small, unblinded, non-randomized uncontrolled observational study, which sits just above the bottom of the evidence pyramid. Subsequent, larger and better designed trials showed no benefit.

The gold standard for medical evidence is a metanalysis of multiple large, randomized, double-blinded placebo controlled studies. This won't be possible for a few years with these vaccines, but in the meantime, the next best is a single large, randomized, double-blinded placebo controlled trial, which is exactly what is happening for the vaccines currently under study.

So, that's how we will know this isn't "just another hydroxychloroquine". The drug received probably undeserved media attention when it was the only clinical lead we had (and because of a certain person in position of authority who touted it against medical consensus). The media really didn't do their job putting the evidence in context. We don't know all the details yet of the vaccine trials, but what we do know indicates that the evidence is very strong and the trials were more than adequately powered to answer the specific clinical questions the FDA will demand.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Pfizer started trials in the US more than two months before the purchase agreement was finalized.

Pfizer and BioNTech Dose First Participants in the U.S. as Part of Global COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Development Program | Pfizer

First participants dosed at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and University of Maryland School of Medicine Pfizer and BioNTech ramping up manufacturing capabilities to further increase production capacity in 2020/2021 Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) announced today that the...

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When bringing drugs to market, the initial phases of trials are not relatively all that expensive. It is the phase 3 clinical trial that usually takes a long time and is very expensive to carry out. I highly doubt they would have completed all the tests and trials needed for FDA approval if they thought they wouldn’t be able to sell enough.