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Pfizer Inc. will be able to supply the US 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of May, two months earlier than previously expected, according to its leadership.
Executive Director Albert Bourla said on Tuesday that the drug manufacturer and its partner, BioNTech SE, will be able to deliver the doses to the US well before the July 31 deadline, due to a change in the vaccine label that allows health care providers to extract a extra dose from each vial.
The six-dose vial took effect Monday and applies to future supply contracts, according to a Pfizer representative.
In the U.S., Pfizer and BioNTech will deliver 120 million doses in the first quarter, 20 million more than originally promised, Bourla said in an interview with Bloomberg chief editor John Micklethwait at the Year Ahead Summit. which took place practically this year.
Bourla added that Pfizer and BioNTech will receive more doses to the European Union before the end of the second quarter. The vaccination regimen of the companies requires two doses to ensure complete protection against symptomatic cases of Covid-19.
Pfizer in New York provided governments with 36 commercially available needle and syringe combinations to extract the last dose from the vials, Bourla said. The drug giant knew they contained his bottles up to six doses of the vaccine, he added, noting that at the beginning of the year he had to generate data to obtain approvals for its use from government authorities around the world.
The change in Pfizer timeline is due to increased anxiety about the slow pace of vaccine launches and concerns about a limited dose. Bourla said the US immunization campaign has been particularly slow in the first few weeks, although the rate of doses administered is expected to improve.
Launch of the vaccine
Vaccinations in the United States began on December 14, just days after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved for emergency use. The Moderna Inc. vaccine, which is based on a similar RNA messenger technology, was phased out shortly thereafter. To date, 23.5 million photos have been taken, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker. In the last week, an average of 1.25 million doses were administered per day.
In total, Pfizer and BioNTech said they plan to produce 2 billion doses in 2021, up 50% from last year’s estimates. While companies plan to increase production with the help of additional contract producers, the new target is also considering a label change that allows doctors to extract six doses instead of five from each vaccine vial.
Bourla said it was important to administer the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within the appropriate timeframe assessed and confirmed by clinical trials, which is 19 to 42 days. There are no data to suggest that the vaccine will be effective if a second dose is given after 42 days, Bourla said.
However, some governments have been willing to accept the compromise of lower immunity in order to inoculate more people.
“Every government, of course, has to deal with 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 have been held with the Biden administration.
Booster for variants
As two new spots of the virus spread globally, Pfizer and BioNTech are also developing booster photos that can protect against various mutations.
“Every time a new variant appears, we should be able to test whether it is or not [our vaccine] it’s effective, “Bourla said. “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 of the current vaccine.”
Bourla’s comments follow the news that Moderna is working on a similar blow. On Monday, Moderna said its vaccine will protect against two known variants of the coronavirus, but plans to begin human studies on a booster shot for a South African strain that can cause immunity to drop faster.
While Bourla does not anticipate that the coronavirus will be eradicated, he said the pharmaceutical industry has the tools to make the virus like the flu.
“This means that neither our life nor our socio-economy will bother us. We have to be very careful about the strains that exist and be very vigilant in vaccinating people “, said Bourla.
People may need a single annual Covid vaccine, which is developed each year to combat any strain that is expected to circulate, he said. Pfizer is working on next-generation versions of its vaccine, which have easier storage requirements for this purpose.
“With the assistance of Drew Armstrong.”
(Updates with additional details and context throughout)