Pfizer testing third dose of coronavirus vaccine to protect against variants
- Pfizer and BioNTech believe their current two-dose vaccine will work against the South African variant as well as one found in the UK and elsewhere
- But the new studies will allow the companies to be prepared if and when more protection is necessary
They are also in talks with regulatory authorities about testing a vaccine modified to protect specifically against the highly transmissible new variant found in South Africa and elsewhere, known as B. 1.351, as a second arm of the same study.
The companies believe their current two-dose vaccine will work against the South African variant as well as one found in the UK and elsewhere. But the studies will allow the vaccine makers to be prepared if and when more protection is necessary, they said.
“The rate of mutations in the current virus is higher than expected,” Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said in an interview.
“It’s a reasonable probability that we would end up with regular boosts. And for potent vaccines, it may be that you need to do a strain change every few years, but not necessarily every year.”
In the first stage of the first arm of the study, a third 30 microgram dose will be given to as many as 144 people who received the vaccine 6 to 12 months ago in the original Phase I safety trial.