Pfizer criticizes sudden change in UK coronavirus vaccine dosing regimen

The difference between the first and the booster dose of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTechof (NASDAQ: BNTX) The coronavirus vaccine has been significantly expanded in the UK – and Pfizer is not happy with it.

The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, an advisory body that advises government health agencies, has approved new dosing guidelines for Pfizer / BioNTech’s BNT162b2 and AZD1222 which has just been approved by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The new guidelines state that the two required injections of the two vaccines can be given up to three months apart.

The main goal of the new recommendation seems to be to get as many people vaccinated as possible with the initial vaccine. Research indicates that partial protection against the coronavirus can begin as early as 12 days after the first stroke.

Image source: Getty Images.

However, according to the Financial Times, Pfizer said, “[Our] study … was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine using a two dose schedule, separated by 21 days … The safety and efficacy of the vaccine have not been evaluated on different schedules dosage, because the majority of participants take the second dose within the window specified in the study design. ”

He also said there was no data indicating that the initial dose of the vaccine was effective after those 21 days.

The amended recommendation caused unrest in the country, FT wrote. Doctors have been forced to rework the schedules of patients wishing to return several days after their initial booster injection. The newspaper quoted Dr Helen Salisbury, a general practitioner from Oxford, as saying the situation was “a mess”.

Neither Pfizer nor BioNTech have surpassed the S&P 500 index Thursday. The share of the first company was up only 0.2% on the day, while that of the second fell 2.9%.