People who have been administered the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine will “probably” need a third dose in six months to a year, followed by another shot every year, the pharmaceutical company’s CEO Albert Bourla said.
He added that variants will play a key role in determining the doses needed, but that “it is extremely important to minimise the number of people vulnerable to the virus.”
"A likely assumption is that a third dose will probably be needed, between six months and 12 months, and from then on there will be a vaccination again every year, but all of that has to be confirmed," Bourla said on Thursday in statements published by CNBC.
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Pfizer/BioNTech had already announced in February that it was studying the effects of a third dose of its coronavirus vaccine, normally administered in two doses, in a clinical study.
At the time, it stated that discussions with regulatory authorities were ongoing regarding an additional registration-enabling study using an mRNA vaccine with a variant sequence, which it hoped would "provide a flexible solution for rapidly adapting the vaccine for use against new virus strains."
At this stage, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which both use messenger RNA technology, are the best performing, showing 95% and 94.1% efficacy against Covid-19, respectively, according to clinical studies.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
