Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has shared with the office of Brazil’s health regulators results of the tests of its COVID-19 vaccine, as per an AFP report.

The sharing of the results is a vital first step to the approval and registration of the vaccine.

The company issued a statement saying, “This is an important step so that the vaccine can be available in Brazil.”

The Latin American country of Brazil has been one of the worst affected and has registered over 6,166,800 cases and has also recorded 170,799 deaths. 

South American nation with a population of 212 million has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world after the United States. 

The clinical results of the Phase 3 study of the BNT162b2 vaccine which has been developed by Pfizer in collaboration with German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, commenced in July. The trials were conducted on 43,661 participants in 150 places around the world, with tests being conducted on 2,900 volunteers in Brazil.

Representatives of Brazil’s National Health Oversight Agency (ANVISA) met with Pfizer’s associates on Wednesday to begin the process of presenting the results.

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ANVISA further stated that labs developing vaccines can present the results as they become available.

The vaccine manufacturer Pfizer added that it would present information pertaining to the vaccine in stages which will include its “95% efficiency rate seven days after taking the second dose, as demonstrated in Phase 2 clinical trial.”

Marjori Dulcine, Pfizer’s medical director, issued a statement saying, “Pfizer will make available all of the necessary data for evaluation, and will collaborate with ANVISA so that the process moves smoothly and as quickly as possible.”

The company had earlier stated that the vaccine has been under observation for weeks in the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom.

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Brazil’s health ministry has agreed to buy 100 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

It has also met with officials from the five pharmaceutical companies of Pfizer, Janssen, Bharat Biotech, Moderna and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, with aims to diversify actions to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic.