- As more infectious COVID variants spread across the US, Pfizer is exploring the utility of a third booster dose.
- Pfizer hopes that a third dose of vaccine can “increase the antibody response 10 to 20 fold.”
- Pfizer and Moderna plan to boost vaccine production and ship 140 million doses to the US over the next 4.5 weeks.
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective in preventing COVID infection, a surprising number that surprised even the company’s team of researchers. Still, with more contagious variants from the UK and South Africa already spreading in the US, Pfizer is currently investigating what type of impact a third booster dose would have on the immune system’s response to COVID. Currently, the Pfizer vaccine requires the administration of two doses three weeks apart.
According to Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, researchers hope that a third booster shot “can increase the antibody response 10 to 20 times.”
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NBC News reports:
The new study will monitor the safety and efficacy of a third dose in two age groups: those 18 to 55 and those 65 to 85. The participants are from a group of people who were among the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine: people who volunteered for Pfizer’s first Phase 1/2 clinical trial, which began in May.
“We want to not only provide protection during this immediate pandemic, but prepare for what we call the nasty variant of the future should one emerge,” said William Gruber, Pfizer senior vice president.
It’s also worth noting that Pfizer is in talks with regulators about the development of a modified vaccine tailored to combat new COVID-19 variants and in particular the South African strain. The hope is that modified mRNA vaccines could soon gain regulatory approval, similar to how there are new flu vaccines based on new strains every year.
The company said in a press release this week:
Separately, to prepare for possible future strain changes, Pfizer and BioNTech are in ongoing discussions with regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency, about a registration that will allow clinical trial to evaluate a variant-specific vaccine with a modified mRNA sequence.
This study would use a new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine construct based on the B.1.351 lineage, first identified in South Africa. This could allow the companies to quickly update the current vaccine should the need arise to protect against COVID-19 from circulating strains. In line with the updated FDA guidelines on emergency use of vaccines to prevent COVID-19, which includes recommendations for evaluating a modified vaccine to address variants, the companies hope to validate future modified mRNA vaccines with a comparable to what is currently available for flu vaccines.
Meanwhile, there’s a good chance that Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine will arrive early next month. The J&J vaccine in clinical trials was found to be 85% effective in preventing severe attacks of COVID and 66% effective when moderate cases are taken into account.
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A lifelong Mac user and enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry in general for over six years. His writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK and most recently in TUAW. When Yoni isn’t writing about and analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys watching Improv shows in Chicago, playing football and cultivating new addiction to TV shows, most recently The Walking Dead and Broad City.