Phizer has also just signed a deal with Beam Therapeutics to partner in a $1.3 Billion Deal for a Gene-Editing collaboration.
“We are just scratching the surface” – Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said and the company has already begun manufacturing a new version of its Covid-19 vaccine that claims to protect recipients against Omicron. The new Omicron vaccine will be ready in March 2022. Pfizer SEO met in an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani to discuss the development of a new COVID-19 vaccine that will involve alleged protection against Omicron.
“Omicron will not be the only variant and this wave will not be the only wave” Pfizer SEO also said it is working to improve its existing vaccine formulation, developed jointly with Germany’s BioNTech, based on the vaccine’s reaction to new COVID-19 variants that arise. Pfizer can “update the current vaccine to address any future variant of potential concern, if needed,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
MODERNA ALSO FORMULATING A BOOSTER …
Moderna on Monday said in an update on its website that while the pharmaceutical firm’s first line of defense against Omicron is a third dose of its existing vaccine, it is also developing an Omicron-specific booster shot.
“Given the long-term threat demonstrated by Omicron’s immune escape, Moderna will continue to develop an Omicron-specific variant vaccine,” the company said. Moderna expects the vaccine to enter advanced clinical trials early this year, but did not specify when.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said at Goldman Sachs’ Healthcare CEO Conference last week that he expects protection provided by the booster against Omicron to wane. “I would expect that it’s not going to hold great,” he said, referring to the efficacy of a third vaccine dose over time.
