Pfizer CEO says he would take it first to allay public concerns

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Monday he would like to be among the first to take a coronavirus vaccine to allay public concerns about vaccine safety.

But there are ethical considerations to that, Bourla said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “If we have a limited number of doses, I’m not sure people would recommend people my age… or my working capacity to be among the first to get the vaccine. So, I want to respect that.

That being said, Bourla, who is in his 50s, expects demand for the drug company’s vaccine to be far “beyond anything we can produce” given its effectiveness. Bourla said the company is on track to produce up to 50 million doses of the vaccine in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

“I think this is probably the most significant medical advance in the last 100 years,” he said. “It’s a great day for science. It’s a great day for humanity when you realize that your vaccine is 90% effective. It’s overwhelming.”

The vaccine contains genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA, which scientists hope will trigger the immune system to fight the virus.

Pfizer worked with German drugmaker BioNTech on the experimental vaccine. Earlier today, companies announced that their vaccine was over 90% effective in preventing Covid-19 among people without evidence of prior infection, hailing the development as “a great day for science and technology. ‘humanity”. Comparatively, the CDC claims that a flu shot reduces the risk of influenza illness by 40% to 60% among the general population.

This is a developing story. Please come back for updates.