Pfizer-BioNTech yesterday announced results from a phase-III randomised, controlled trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of a 30-µg booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in more than 10,000 individuals 16 years of age and older. In the trial, a booster dose administered to individuals who previously received the Pfizer-BioNTech primary two-dose series restored vaccine protection against COVID-19 to the high levels achieved after the second dose, showing a relative vaccine efficacy of 95.6 per cent when compared to those who did not receive a booster. These are the first efficacy results from any randomised and controlled COVID-19 vaccine booster trial.
“These results provide further evidence of the benefits of boosters as we aim to keep people well-protected against this disease,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer. “In addition to our efforts to increase global access and uptake among the unvaccinated, we believe boosters have a critical role to play in addressing the ongoing public health threat of this pandemic. We look forward to sharing these data with health authorities and working together to determine how they can be used to support the rollout of booster doses around the world,” he further said.
“These important data add to the body of evidence suggesting that a booster dose of our vaccine can help protect a broad population of people from this virus and its variants,” said Ugur Sahin, MD, CEO and co-founder, BioNTech.
He added, “Based on these findings, we believe that, in addition to broad global access to vaccines for everyone, booster vaccinations could play an important role in sustaining pandemic containment and a return to normalcy.”
All trial participants previously completed the primary two-dose series of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and then were randomised 1:1 to receive either a 30-µg booster dose (the same dosage strength as those in the primary series) or placebo. The median time between the second dose and administration of the booster dose or placebo was approximately 11 months. Symptomatic COVID-19 occurrence was measured from at least seven days after booster or placebo, with a median follow-up of 2.5 months. During the study period, there were five cases of COVID-19 in the booster group, and 109 cases in the non-boosted group. The observed relative vaccine efficacy of 95.6 per cent (95% CI: 89.3, 98.6) reflects the reduction in disease occurrence in the boosted group versus the non-boosted group in those without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. The median age of participants was 53 years, with 55.5 per cent of participants between 16 and 55 years, and 23.3 per cent of participants 65 years and older. Multiple subgroup analyses showed efficacy was consistent irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, or comorbid conditions.
The adverse event profile was generally consistent with other clinical safety data for the vaccine, with no safety concerns identified.
Pfizer and BioNTech plan to submit detailed results from the trial for peer-reviewed publication. The companies also plan to share these data with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other regulatory agencies around the world as soon as possible.