The Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) for emergency use against COVID-19 in December 2020. These approvals, supported by remarkable efficacy data, have led to a staggering 250% rise in the influencer conversations around Pfizer on Twitter during October-December (Q4) 2020* compared to the previous three months, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Smitarani Tripathy, Influencer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “In November, there was a dramatic rise in the influencer conversations around Pfizer and vaccines on GlobalData’s Influencer platform, led by the announcement of the success of its COVID-19 vaccine. The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, is said to be more than 90% effective. This announcement came after the first interim efficacy analysis in Phase 3 of clinical trial of the vaccine candidate.”

Another major spike for Pfizer was noticed in December, when MHRA authorized the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine. The UK is the first country in the world to start using this new vaccine.

In addition, the emergency use-authorization from the US FDA was another key driver of conversation during the month.  The EU, Canada, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia have already approved the emergency use of the vaccine while Pfizer has also applied for approval in several other countries. Another conversation spike was noticed when FDA started investigating instances where people suffered allergic reactions after receiving the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

In October, an influencer conversation spike around Pfizer was driven by the announcement by the company that it owns 9.9% stake in CStone Pharmaceuticals (Cstone). Pfizer partnered with CStone to develop and commercialize oncology therapies of CStone in China.

*Until 23 December 2020