Pfizer lab has started research to produce an effective version of the Covid-19 vaccine

Pfizer wants to anticipate. The laboratory has already started work on a new version of its anti-Covid vaccine targeting more specifically Omicron in case the current vaccine is not sufficiently effective against the new variant, announced Monday, November 29, its CEO, Albert Bourla. “There are still a lot of unknowns” around the new variant detected in South Africa and judged “worrying” by the WHO, he said in an interview on the American channel CNBC. “We will know most of what there is to know within a few weeks.”

The laboratory must first conduct tests to assess the effectiveness of current vaccines, developed with BioNTech, against Omicron. Corn “if the (current) vaccine protects less and we need to create a new vaccine, we started working on it on Friday, we made our first DNA model, which is the first step in the development of a new vaccine “, he explained.

Pfizer has already created in the past two new versions of its vaccine in less than a hundred days, against the Delta and Beta variants, which were ultimately not used. If needed, “in 95 days we will have the new vaccine” against Omicron, assured Albert Bourla. The group has the capacity to produce four billion doses as needed next year, he also said.

The Moderna laboratory, which also produces a vaccine against Covid-19, also announced on Friday its intention to develop a specific booster dose for Omicron.