A leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech is reportedly 95 percent effective. 

AFP and other foreign media said on Wednesday that the Phase 3 trial of the vaccine candidate was now complete and that the vaccine was found 95 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19.

The findings are reportedly based on an analysis of 170 confirmed cases among some 41-thousand participants in the trial. Just eight people who were given the vaccine got sick, compared to 162 who were given a placebo. 

Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement that the study results mark an "important step" in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping end this devastating pandemic.

The companies said in a joint statement that there have been no serious side effects among the trial participants and that the vaccine was more than 94 percent effective among people over the age of 65 as well.