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Pfizer Inc. will be able to deliver 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the US by the end of May, two months earlier than previously expected.
CEO Albert Bourla said on Tuesday that the drug manufacturer and its partner, BioNTech SE, would be able to deliver the doses well before an earlier deadline on July 31 in the US due to a change in the label of the vaccine that the suppliers of healthcare allows to collect an additional dose from each vial.
According to the Pfizer representative, the count of six doses per vial is effective on Monday and will apply from now on.
In the U.S., Pfizer and BioNTech will deliver 120 million doses in the first quarter, 20 million more than initially promised, Bourla said in an interview with Bloomberg editor – in – chief John Micklethwait during the year ahead of the summit. held this year.
Bourla added that Pfizer and BioNTech will receive more doses for the European Union before the end of the second quarter. The vaccine regimen of the companies requires two doses to provide full protection against symptomatic cases of Covid-19.
New York-based Pfizer has provided 36 commercially available needle and syringe combinations to governments to extract the last dose from the vials, Bourla said. The drug giant knew she contained bottles to six doses of vaccines, he added, pointing out that at the beginning of the year it had to generate data to obtain approvals for the use of government authorities around the world.
The change in Pfizer’s timeline comes amid heightened anxiety over the slow pace of vaccine vaccination and concerns over a limited amount of doses. Bourla said the U.S. vaccination campaign was particularly slow in the first few weeks, although he expected the rate of doses administered would improve.
Vaccination of vaccines
Vaccinations in the US began on December 14, a few days after the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was approved for emergency use. The Moderna Inc. vaccine, which relies on similar messenger RNA technology, was subsequently cleared. So far, 23.5 million shots have been fired, according to Bloomberg’s vaccination detection. Over the past week, an average of 1.25 million doses have been administered per day.
Altogether, Pfizer and BioNTech said they plan to produce 2 billion doses by 2021, a 50% increase from estimates given last year. While the companies plan to increase production with the help of additional contract manufacturers, the new goal also takes into account a label change that allows doctors to take six doses instead of five from each vaccination vial.
Bourla said it was important to administer the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within the appropriate time, evaluated and confirmed by clinical trials, which is 19 to 42 days. No data suggest the vaccine will be effective if a second dose is administered after 42 days, Bourla said.
Nevertheless, some governments were willing to accept the compromise of lower immunity to vaccinate more people.
“Every government, of course, has to manage a very complicated situation,” he said.
Bourla said the company is in talks with various governments for additional doses, but declined to comment on whether such talks are being held with the Biden government.
Booster for variants
As two new spots of the virus spread worldwide, Pfizer and BioNTech are also developing booster shots that can protect against various mutations.
‘Every time a new variant appears, we need to be able to test whether or not it is [our vaccine] is effective, ”said Bourla. “Once we discover something that is not as effective, we will be able to produce a booster dose very, very quickly that will be a small variation in the current vaccine.”
Bourla’s comments follow the news that Moderna is working on a similar booster shot. On Monday, Moderna said that the vaccine would protect against two known coronavirus variants, but he planned to start human studies with a booster shot for a tribe from South Africa that could reduce immunity faster.
While Bourla does not expect the coronavirus to be eradicated, he said the pharmaceutical industry has the necessary tools to make the virus like flu.
‘It means it will not disturb our lives or the socio-economy. “We have to be very vigilant about the strains that exist and very vigilant about vaccinating people,” Bourla said.
People may need a one-time Covid vaccine developed each year to combat the stress expected, he said. Pfizer is working on the next generation versions of its vaccine that have easier storage requirements for it.
– Assisted by Drew Armstrong
(Updates with additional details and context throughout)