Coronavirus Live Updates: Pfizer Says Its 95% Effective Vaccine Works Across All Ages and Races

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

Stocks are again set to rise on promising Covid vaccine news. Pfizer announced early Wednesday that final data analysis shows its vaccine candidate is 95% effective — better than the previously reported effectiveness of “more than 90%.” The company also said the drug worked consistently across all ages, races and ethnicities. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose in early trading Wednesday.

The following data was compiled by Johns Hopkins University:

Pfizer and Moderna have released promising late-stage clinical trial data showing their coronavirus vaccines, both using a new messenger RNA technology, were highly effective in preventing Covid-19.

Now, the challenge will be figuring out how to distribute their vaccines, both of which require two shots, to billions of people across the globe. It will likely take months, maybe even more than a year, to distribute enough doses for the U.S. and the rest of the world to suppress the virus, public health officials and health experts warn.

In the U.S., Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told CNBC on Monday that there will be roughly 40 million doses of vaccine available by the end of this year between the two companies, enough to inoculate about 20 million people.

“Still, this process could be much more complicated and more chaotic than people think,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding 40 million doses in 2020 will not be sufficient to achieve so-called herd immunity in the U.S. 

—Noah Higgins-Dunn, Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Former Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb called on Americans to take steps to reduce coronavirus spread, while also urging Congress to provide fiscal support to aid businesses such as bars and restaurants that may be ordered to close as the crisis worsens.

“This may be the last time we have to do it, so we really should do what we can to try to preserve life over the next two or three months, recognizing that there’s really a better future ahead of us, with respect at least to Covid-19 in 2021,” Gottlieb said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

The reason for optimism, Gottlieb said, is due to the positive developments around Covid-19 vaccines, with those from Pfizer and Moderna both indicating efficacy of around 95%. “We see the light at the end of the tunnel now,” said Gottlieb, a Pfizer board member. “These vaccines could effectively end the … U.S. epidemic in 2021 as we more widely deploy them.”

—Kevin Stankiewicz

Marco Bello | Reuters

A volunteer is injected with a vaccine as he participates in a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination study at the Research Centers of America, in Hollywood, Florida, U.S., September 24, 2020.

A group of advisors has been asked by the Food and Drug Administration to set aside three days in early December for potential meetings to discuss Covid-19 vaccines, CNBC’s Meg Tirrell reports, citing two people familiar with the plans. The meetings would be a key step in the agency’s emergency authorization process.

The group may be asked to comment on Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, said the sources, who asked not to be named.

The meetings, said to be set for Dec. 8, 9 and 10, would come just weeks after both companies reported data from their phase three trials showing their vaccines are about 95% effective in preventing cases of Covid-19.

—Terri Cullen

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shoppers wear protective masks inside a Target Corp. store in New York, U.S., on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. Target is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 19.

Target said it won market share across all of its core categories during the third quarter as pandemic shopping habits proved long-lasting.

Sales rose 20.7% year over year, bolstered by a 155% rise in comparable digital sales.

Target locations remained open in the early days of virus shutdowns, and the company beefed up delivery options to reach Americans stuck at home. The company said Wednesday it held onto those March and April customers and won more of their shopping spend, CNBC’s Melissa Repko reports.

Sales were higher in every category: Electronics sales shot up by more than 50%, the home items category rose by a mid-20s percentage, apparel jumped by nearly 10%, and essentials & beauty and food & beverage each grew in the high teens.

—Sara Salinas

Moderna’s announcement earlier this week that its vaccine was more than 94% effective at preventing the coronavirus, according to preliminary trial data, raised global hopes further that an end to the pandemic that has killed over 1.3 million people could be in sight.

But mass producing a vaccine at speed, overseeing that manufacturing process, and then transporting it around the world pose “big challenges,” according to Swiss drugmaker Lonza that has partnered with Moderna to produce its coronavirus vaccine.

“We can only produce more than 500 million doses a year if we install additional manufacturing lines, so it is clear that we need additional investments in installation if we want to produce more than 500 million (per year) in the future,” Lonza Chairman Albert Baehny told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

—Holly Ellyatt

Pfizer said a final data analysis found its coronavirus vaccine was 95% effective in preventing Covid-19, was well tolerated and appeared to fend off severe disease.

The company, which has been developing the vaccine with German drugmaker BioNTech, said it plans to submit an application for emergency use authorization to the FDA “within days.” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said at Tuesday’s New York Times Dealbook conference that the company had accumulated enough safety data needed to submit the vaccine for review.

The news comes more than a week after the companies announced that their vaccine was more than 90% effective and two days after Moderna said preliminary phase three trial data showed its vaccine was 94.5%. Both vaccines use messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology.

–Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

The U.S. is recording roughly 157,000 new Covid cases per day, on average, as of Tuesday, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. That’s another new record and nearly 30% higher than infection levels a week ago.

The national seven-day average of new cases has been at record levels — and rising — since Oct. 25, with infections and current hospitalizations now spiking in nearly every state, according to CNBC’s analysis.

—Sara Salinas

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