Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson said they had begun competing, like Moderna, to produce a new version of their COVID-19 vaccine that would target the Omicron mutant if their vaccines were not effective in protecting against this new version of the virus.
According to Al Arabiya Net, Pfizer CEO Albert Borla said in an interview with CNBC that there is still a lot of ambiguity about the new mutation detected in South Africa, which it described World Health Organization as worrying.
He added: We will know the most important thing in a few weeks, noting that experiments must be carried out to test the effectiveness of the current vaccine developed by his company in cooperation with the Biontech company.
He explained that if the (current) vaccine turns out to be less effective and we need to develop a new one, we started working on it, Friday, we did the first DNA sample and it will be The first stage in developing a new vaccine.
Pfizer previously created two new versions of its vaccine against the delta and beta mutants, but they were not used. Borla confirmed that, if the need arises, we will have a serious vaccine within 95 days.
He stressed that his company has the capacity, when needed, to produce four billion doses next year.
The Moderna company announced Friday its intention to develop a booster dose of the vaccine designed to protect against the Omicron mutant.
Johnson & Johnson announced that it is evaluating the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine against mutant mutants, including Omicron.
The company added in a statement that it is working at the same time to produce a vaccine that specifically targets Omicron, and will develop it as needed.
Mathai Mamen, who is responsible for research at Johnson & Johnson's Janssen company that developed the COVID-19 vaccine, was quoted as saying that the company remains confident in the ability of the vaccine. Its current single-dose vaccine provides an immune response against the various variants.
