Pfizer CEO admitted that a third dose of his vaccine may be needed

People who have received Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine will “probably” need it a third dose within six months to a year, then probably one injection per yearsaid the head of the American pharmaceutical giant.

“A likely hypothesis is that a third dose is needed, between six and 12 months, and from there it will be necessary to vaccinate every year, but all of this remains to be confirmed,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. released Thursday by CNBC. .

“And on the other hand, the variants will play a fundamental role,” he added.

“It is extremely important to minimize the number of people vulnerable to the virus,” Bourla continued.

Previously, the director of anti-covid cells of the Biden administration had also assured that Americans should expect to receive a booster shot of the vaccine to protect themselves from circulating variants of the vaccine. coronavirus.

“For the moment, we do not know everything,” admitted Dr. David Kessler during a hearing before US lawmakers.

“We are studying the duration of the antibody response,” he said.

The Pfizer / BioNTech alliance had already announced in February that it was studying the effects of a third dose of its vaccine variant in a clinical study.

Given in two doses, this vaccine, like Moderna’s, uses innovative messenger RNA technology, which has never been used before in real life.

At the moment, these two vaccines work the best, with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine showing 95% efficacy against COVID-19 and 94.1% from Moderna, according to clinical studies.

Source: AFP

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