Washington, November 11: In another positive development pertaining to coronavirus vaccine, US Health Secretary Alex Azar said that if Pfizer Inc submitted the positive initial data from its Covid-19 vaccine trial to health regulators as quickly as expected, then US government has plans to begin vaccinating Americans in December.

Pfizer on Monday had informed that the vaccine it has been developing with German partner BioNTech SE was 90 percent effective against coronavirus. The pharma company in a statement had said, "We are proud to announce, along with BioNTech Group, that our mRNA-based vaccine candidate has, at an interim analysis, demonstrated initial evidence of efficacy against COVID-19 in participants without prior evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection." Pfizer Says COVID-19 Vaccine 90% Effective in Phase 3 Trial, Likely to File for Emergency Use by November-End.

The US drugmaker informed that it expects to have safety data as soon as next week that it needs to apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) with the US Food and Drug Administration. Azar further mentioned that after the FDA authorization, the US would receive about 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine per month.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 11, 2020 09:05 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).