Coronavirus Live Updates: EU Agrees To Buy 300 Million Pfizer-BioNTech Doses; Russia Touts Its Own Vaccine Data

The Covid vaccine-powered stock market rally looks to be entering its third day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average set to open roughly 200 points higher. The average gained more than 1,000 points in the last two days after Pfizer and BioNTech announced encouraging vaccine effectiveness data. The continued rally and rotation out of stay-at-home stocks suggest investors are hanging lofty hopes on the vaccine, even as the U.S. enters a dangerous few months of rising cases and colder temperatures.

The following data was compiled by Johns Hopkins University:

Global cases: More than 51.55 million
Global deaths: At least 1.27 million
U.S. cases: More than 10.25 million
U.S. deaths: At least 239,695

Russia said its coronavirus vaccine is 92% effective at preventing Covid-19, based on interim trial results.

RDIF said the early results from its late-stage phase three clinical trial of the vaccine, called “Sputnik V,” showed that its efficacy was “based on the 20 confirmed Covid-19 cases split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo.”

The announcement by Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF came two days after U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said their vaccine was more than 90% effective in phase three trials.

Observation of study participants will continue for six months before a full report of the phase three clinical trials is presented, RDIF said, but it noted that the interim research data will be published by the Gamaleya Center team, the developers of the vaccine, “in one of the leading international peer-reviewed medical journals” without indicating when this might be.

The European Union has agreed to buy up to 300 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine currently under production by Pfizer and BioNTech, Reuters reports.

The vaccine sent world markets surging on Monday after data showed it was more than 90% effective in preventing the virus.

Under the deal, which follows similar agreements between the bloc and other drug makers, EU countries can buy 200 million doses of the drug, with the option to purchase an additional 100 million.

– CNBC