Pfizer Inc have said that its experimental vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 based on initial data from a large study.
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are now the first drugmakers to show successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine.
The news have been welcomed by health experts from all over the world particularly due to the high level of effectiveness.
Regulators in the US and EU had already said they would be prepared to accept a vaccine that was just 50 per cent effective.
Bernd Salzberger, head of infectiology in the University Hospital Regensburg in Germany said the data from the study was "overall a very positive result".
"Although only a few events - a total of 94 cases - have been observed in the study so far, this is a very good result. No serious side effects have been reported, which will probably lead to an early approval."
'My optimism remains strong'
Despite the excitement, Professor of Immunology at Imperial College London, Danny Altmann said there is still a long road ahead.
"It's good news, but it's not 'overnight success' good news".
Prof Altmann cautioned that this and other potentially successful vaccines would still need to be approved and delivered to people across the world, and this will still take many months.
He added, however: "I always felt optimistic, and my optimism remains strong."
Carsten Brzeski, global head of Macro for ING Research added: "The base case we have already is that we are likely to get a vaccine by year-end and that it will be rolled out. So we do see news like this as positive.
"The worrying sign would be if we get negative news say on testing, that would hurt how we view the economic outlook."
