Pfizer is speeding up research into COVID-19 vaccines because there is a “high probability” that existing shots against the deadly bug will not be effective in the future.
“There is a very high probability that one day it will,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, said at a panel at the virtual 2021 Davos World Economic Forum.
Bourla hopes to reduce the time it takes to spot an infectious disease on a pandemic scale and shorten vaccine authorization to 100 days or less, Business Insider reports. That’s a third of the time of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.
COVID vaccines were produced in record time thanks to technological advancements, major funding efforts and the public’s willingness to participate in trials, the Daily Mail reported.
New York-based Pfizer, which developed its vaccine with Germany’s BioNTech, was the first to come out with a COVID-19 vaccine approval.
Bourla said the company could never have dreamed that its vaccine would be 95 percent effective. “Almost perfect,” he boasted. Pfizer’s photo is one of two versions offered in New York City.
In contrast, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is only 66 percent effective, although it can prevent hospitalization and death better than the disease itself.
Bourla said he is committed to ensuring that the Pfizer shot remains highly effective while the virus mutates. So far it has only been tested with lab versions of the variants found in the UK and South Africa, both of which have appeared in the US.
The CEO also addressed distribution issues, which he acknowledged were bumpy. “I am very optimistic, very soon we will be able to deliver the doses we have promised the world,” said Bourla. By the start of summer, the world should have the supplies it needs, he said. Pfizer aims to produce 2 billion doses.