Sharjah24 – AFP: Pfizer has already started working on a version of its Covid-19 vaccine specifically targeting the new Omicron variant in case the current inoculation is not effective against the latest strain, the US drugmaker's CEO Albert Bourla said Monday.
Bourla told CNBC that his company on Friday began testing the current vaccine against the Omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa and has reignited fears of a global wave of Covid-19 infections.
"I don't think the result will be the vaccines don't protect," Bourla said.
But the testing could show that existing shots "protect less," which would mean "that we need to create a new vaccine," Bourla said.
"Friday we made our first DNA template, which is the first possible inflection of the development process of a new vaccine," he said.
Johnson & Johnson also said Monday that it is "pursuing an Omicron-specific variant vaccine and will progress it as needed."
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