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Pfizer Inc. will be able to supply the United States with 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of May, two months ahead of schedule, according to its top executive.
CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday that the pharmacist and his partner, BioNTech SE, will be able to deliver the doses to the United States before July 31 due to a change in the label of the vaccine that allows health care providers to be extracted. an additional dose for each vial.
The six-dose roadside count became effective 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 initially promised, Bourla said in an interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait at the Year Ahead Summit. was held practically this year.
Bourla added that Pfizer and BioNTech will receive more doses in the European Union before the end of the second quarter. The company vaccination regimen requires two doses to provide complete protection against symptomatic cases of Covid-19.
New York-based Pfizer has supplied governments with 36 commercially available needle and syringe combinations to be able to extract the last dose from the vials, Bourla said. The drug giant knew they contained their vials Until six doses of vaccine, he added, noting that at the beginning of the year, he had to generate data to get approvals from government power around the world.
The change in Pfizer’s schedule occurs amid increased anxiety over the slow pace of vaccine deployment and concern over a limited dose supply. Bourla said the U.S. vaccination campaign had been especially slow in its early weeks, though he hopes it will improve the pace of doses administered.
Launch of vaccines
Vaccinations in the U.S. began on December 14, just days after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for emergency use. The Moderna Inc. vaccine, which relies on similar messenger RNA technology, was removed shortly thereafter. So far, 23.5 million shots have been fired, according to Bloomberg vaccine follower. An average of 1.25 million doses a day were administered last week.
In total, Pfizer and BioNTech have said they expect to produce 2 billion doses by 2021, 50% more than last year’s estimates. While 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 extract six doses instead of five from each vaccine vial.
Bourla said it is important to administer the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within the appropriate time period evaluated and confirmed by clinical trials, which is 19 to 42 days. No data suggests the vaccine will be effective if a second dose is given after 42 days, Bourla said.
However, some governments have been willing to accept compensation for lower immunity for inoculating more people.
“Of course, every government has to deal with a very complicated situation,” he said.
Bourla said the company is in talks with several governments to get additional doses, but declined to comment on whether these discussions were being held with the Biden administration.
Booster for variants
As two new spots of the virus spread globally, Pfizer and BioNTech are also developing booster shots 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 is effective, “Bourla said.” Once we discover something that is not so effective, we will be able to produce very, very quickly a booster dose that will be a small variation of the current vaccine. “
Bourla’s comments follow the news that Moderna is working on a similar booster shot. On Monday, Moderna said its vaccine will protect against two known variants of coronavirus, but plans to start studies in humans on a booster shot for a South African strain that can lower immunity more quickly.
While Bourla does not anticipate coronavirus eradication, he said the pharmaceutical industry has the tools to make the virus like the flu.
“It simply came to our notice then. We have to be very attentive to the strains that exist and be very attentive to vaccinating people, ”said Bourla.
People may require an annual Covid vaccine to be developed each year to fight any strain that is expected to circulate, he said. Pfizer is working on next-generation versions of its vaccine that need simpler storage for this purpose.
– With the assistance of Drew Armstrong
(Updates with more details and additional context)