Pfizer said Tuesday that it is laying the groundwork to create a vaccine enhancer that can respond to coronavirus variants.
“We should not be afraid, but I think we should be prepared,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told the Bloomberg The Year Ahead event on Tuesday. “Once we discover something that is not so effective, we will very, very quickly deliver a booster dose that will be a small variation in the current one.”
Bourla said the company has discussed variants in the past and created a process to adapt quickly.
“We have been working on a process that will enable us to do the development very quickly,” Bourla said. “Now we have already started implementing this process.”
Pfizer stressed in a statement to CNN on Tuesday that the process is to respond, “as a variant of SARS-CoV-2 provides evidence of the release of immunity by our vaccine.”
The studies needed to evaluate a vaccine encoding an updated viral antigen have yet to be determined, in accordance with the regulators. We will need to generate data that gives confidence that any updated vaccine is safe and effective. The updated vaccine administered as a booster will be subject to approval or authorization by the regulator, ”reads the statement.
Last week, Ugur Sahin, who helped invent the BioNTech vaccine manufactured and distributed by Pfizer, tested his vaccine against the B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the UK. The team found ‘no biologically significant difference in neutralization activity’, they reported in a preview report. But they said it would be “wise” to adjust the vaccine, just in case.
Vaccine manufacturer Moderna announced Monday that two doses of the vaccine are expected to be protective against emerging strains of coronavirus that have been detected so far, but out of a plethora of caution, he planned to test shots.