On 2 December the first vaccine to prevent Covid-19 is formally approved. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency approved the Pfizer and BioNTech mRNA Covid-19 vaccine for temporary emergency use. The vaccine was found to be over 90 percent effective in the first independent analysis of any Covid-19 vaccine in phase 3 trials (final stage before commercial licensing). Global equity markets rallied after Pfizer’s announcement of the new vaccine on 9 November, led by travel and leisure companies that have been hit hard by the Covid crisis. The German BioNTech, founded in 2008 by a Turkish husband and wife team of scientists, initially focussed on cancer treatments in developing their messenger RNA technology. While BioNTech scaled back its IPO in 2019 amid weak investor interest, its success in the Covid vaccine race saw its shares increase by 46 percent in November.
