Pfizer is already manufacturing a Covid vaccine targeting the Omicron variant, which it expects to be ready to distribute by June, its chief executive, Albert Bourla, has said.
“This vaccine will be ready in March,” Bourla told CNBC. “We [are] already starting manufacturing some of these quantities at risk.”
The need for a Omicron-specific coronavirus vaccine has been questioned, not least by Anthony Fauci, the White House medical adviser, who has said booster doses of existing vaccines are sufficient to counter the variant.
Nonetheless, Bourla said there were governments who wanted an updated vaccine as soon as possible.
Bourla said: “The hope is that we will achieve something that will have way, way better protection particularly against infections, because the protection against the hospitalisations and the severe disease – it is reasonable right now, with the current vaccines as long as you are having let’s say the third dose.”