Pfizer touts COVID vaccine as 90% effective

Drug company Pfizer announced Monday that initial data on its COVID-19 vaccine candidate shows it may be 90% effective at preventing infection.

The company’s facilities in Kalamazoo County are among those being used to produce the vaccine.

What it means: If all goes well, Pfizer could have a working COVID-19 vaccine out to patients by the end of the year. Pfizer still has to apply for emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which will want to review the company’s trial data before giving approval.

The data cited on Monday is promising, but company officials said it is also preliminary and could still change as the trial goes on. Pfizer’s vaccine study has enrolled nearly 44,000 people in six countries.