On December 11, Beijing time, the New England Journal of Medicine published online the results of the Phase III clinical trial of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine. A two-dose regimen of BNT162b2 conferred 95% protection against Covid-19 in persons 16 years of age or older. Safety over a median of 2 months was similar to that of other viral vaccines.

BNT162b2 was jointly developed by BioNTech and Pfizer. Its development was initiated on January 10, 2020, when the SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence was released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and disseminated globally by the GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) initiative.According to the NEJM paper,this rigorous demonstration of safety and efficacy less than 11 months later provides a practical demonstration that RNA-based vaccines, which require only viral genetic sequence information to initiate development, are a major new tool to combat pandemics and other infectious disease outbreaks.