“There is no vaccine constraint in volume,” he said. While some experts have been skeptical of the push to give boosters in developed countries like the U.S., Dolsten insisted that the boosters are important. He said that he is “cautiously optimistic” that, especially for those who have received a third dose of the vaccine, also known as a booster, the existing vaccine will prove protective against Omicron.ĭolsten’s argument is that booster shots lead to greater levels of antibodies that neutralize the virus, and also more diverse types of antibodies that give broader protection against new variants. “We don’t know whether it will really outcompete Delta in a more diverse population, and we don’t know yet whether our vaccine does cover it sufficiently,” Dolsten said. He emphasized, however, that a great many questions about Omicron still loom. At the same time, Dolsten said, it would be possible to have two different versions of the vaccine: one for the older strains and one for Omicron.
Dolsten imagines that if a new Omicron-specific vaccine is needed, it would replace the current vaccine, because so far new strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have become problematic have out-competed existing strains. In about three months - by early March - Dolsten said Pfizer and BioNTech would be able to produce doses at “very high commercial scale.” That would mean being able to produce a billion doses of vaccine a quarter, or about 330 million doses a month. It is possible to see how much a vaccine increases antibody levels within seven days after the second dose, so he believes a study could be completed within a month. Such a study would be small, and would look at the safety of the vaccine and the immune response to it.
If one is required, though, Pfizer would have enough experimental vaccine to begin a clinical trial within about two months, Dolsten said. What’s known and unknown about Omicron, the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa Exclusive analysis of biotech, pharma, and the life sciences Learn More