Pfizer CEO told Sky News that new COVID variants that could evade current vaccines pose a bigger threat to global public health than a monkeypox outbreak .
The increase in incidents of monkey pox in 21 countries outside of Africa, including 78 in the UKraised concerns that a significant outbreak was underway, but Albert Bourla said it was highly unlikely to turn into a pandemic.
“We were alerted like everyone else when we saw an increase in cases, because we had no cases and suddenly there were, but I’m not worried right now,” he said.
“We are monitoring and monitoring very carefully. It seems that this is a non-contagious situation so it is very unlikely that it will become a pandemic, and it seems that there is a vaccine that could work. I’m keeping calm and monitoring the situation, but I think right now the real problem is still Covid.”
Mr. Bourla was speaking as he announced a groundbreaking program to make all of Pfizer’s current and future patent-protected drugs affordable to the 45 lowest-income countries around the world. gender.
Pfizer is the first company to develop active and approved coronavirus vaccinein partnership with German biotech company BioNTech.
Mr Bourla said the pandemic had highlighted both the importance of the pharmaceutical industry and the broader responsibility of the industry.
Pfizer has developed the first coronavirus vaccine
23 life-saving drugs available for free
Pfizer estimates the initiative could make medicines cheaper for 1.2 billion people and address historic gaps in access to treatments for populations in the developing world. .
Some 23 drugs to treat rare infectious diseases, cancers and inflammatory conditions will be offered at no profit to Pfizer.
“I think the world has realized the value that a vibrant life science can bring to society,” Mr. Bourla said.
“For example, the life sciences sector includes the private sector, academia as we saw with the Oxford vaccine AstraZeneca, and we partner with BioNTech, a biotech company.
“But it also reminds us that when we have these weapons, these tools to fight disease, we have to find a way to get them to people in ways that they can afford.”
Pfizer surveillance variants
Bourla said Pfizer is monitoring the progress of Covid variants to adapt vaccines if required and will submit new formulations to regulators in the UK, Europe and the US in due course. fit.
“I’m not concerned about production capacity, we can build production capacity to meet the needs of the whole world. Now we are monitoring variations and we see that some variations are normal. smarter than other variants, and they can avoid pharmaceutical perfection.”
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When asked how long we will have the COVID vaccine, he said: “I don’t have the crystal ball but there are a lot of variations that could affect this result and I think the virus will remain in the we.
“We’re going to have the tools to get back to normal, so I don’t think because of variations we have to impose restrictions on our lives.”
