The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech appears to protect 94% of adults over the age of 65.
More data from the ongoing Phase 3 indicates that it works well for people of all ages and races.
The companies say they will now apply for permission for the emergency use of the stab in the United States.
41,000 people worldwide participated in the trial. Half of them were given the vaccine, and half of them were placebo
Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech published preliminary data indicating that the vaccine provides 90% protection against Covid-19, and said there were no safety concerns.
This was followed by data on a vaccine produced by the US company Moderna that proposes approximately 95% protection and similarly promising results from the trials of another vaccine developed in Russia, called Sputnik.
"Reassured"
Wednesday's data from Pfizer and BioNTech, which is based on last week's data, indicates the vaccine is 95% effective based on 170 cases of Covid-19 in volunteers.
Only eight were in the group that was given the vaccine, indicating that it provides good protection. The remainder of the cases were in the placebo group given a mock cake.
In older adults, who are more likely to contract the virus and have a weaker immune system, the vaccine worked just as well as it did in younger people.
The scientists said the data was even more encouraging news, with Professor Trudy Lang of the University of Oxford describing it as "a wonderful and very reassuring situation".
"The transition from identifying a new virus to obtaining several vaccines when applying for regulatory approval represents a milestone in science," she said.
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Although the full trial data has not yet been released, the companies say there have been no serious safety concerns.
But they did notice headache and fatigue in about 2% of the volunteers who were given the vaccine, even though the elderly appeared to experience few side effects.
There is also evidence that the vaccine prevents severe Covid disease - but this is based on only 10 cases.
It remains unclear how long vaccine protection will last and whether it prevents people from transmitting the virus.
In the experiment, 42% of all participants were from diverse ethnic backgrounds and 41% were between 56 and 85 years old.


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