Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla speaks during a press conference after a visit to oversee the production of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s plant in Puurs, Belgium on April 23. year 2021.
John Thys | Swimming Pool | Reuters
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Tuesday said the omicron variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 appears to be milder than previous strains, but also appears to spread more quickly and could lead to more mutations in the virus. future.
Bourla told The Wall Street Journal in an interview at the newspaper’s Board of Directors Summit that the news is good. “The rapid spread means it will be in billions of people and another mutation could come. You don’t want that.”
The White House’s chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, said reports over the weekend from South Africa suggested omicrons were not as severe as initially feared, noting that more data is needed for a full assessment. risk posed by variation.
The South African Medical Research Council, in a report published Saturday, said most hospitalized patients in Pretoria with Covid do not require supplemental oxygen. The report also notes that many patients are hospitalized for other medical reasons and are later found to have Covid.
Bourla warned that it is difficult to draw precise conclusions about the wave of infections in South Africa right now. Only 5% of South Africans are over the age of 60, and younger people usually have milder cases of Covid. However, many people in South Africa are also HIV-positive, which could lead to more severe illness from Covid, he said.
The Pfizer CEO said he expects the number of confirmed omicron cases to increase from tens to millions in the next few weeks.
“We will have a clear understanding before the end of the school year as to what it means exactly for clinical presentation,” says Bourla.
Bourla said Pfizer could develop a vaccine targeting the omicrons by March 2022, but it remains unclear whether a new shot will be necessary. He said it will take several weeks to determine whether current vaccines provide sufficient protection against this variant.
Bourla said Pfizer is confident its oral antiviral, Paxlovid, will fight omicron and every other variant of the virus that has emerged so far. The drug inhibits an enzyme the virus needs to replicate, called protease.
So far, most of the virus’ mutations have occurred on the mutant protein, the mechanism it uses to attach to human cells, Bourla said. Vaccines and antibody treatments that target the mutant protein may need updating as mutations occur on that part of the virus, he said.
However, it would be much more difficult for the virus to mutate in such a way that it can live without the protease enzyme that Paxlovid targets, he said.
“It’s very difficult for the virus to make a virus strain that can live without this protease,” says Bourla. “It’s not impossible. It’s very difficult.”
Bourla doesn’t expect Covid to be completely eradicated anytime soon, but he said society will start to treat the virus like a seasonal flu as more people get vaccinated and more powerful treatments roll out. to the market.
“Once we vaccinate everyone, once we put politics out of the equation – it’s no big deal,” Bourla said, noting that society will never achieve 100% vaccination. “That’s why unfortunately it will require treatments. But we can live normal lives. Normal life means you can go to restaurants and don’t need to wear a mask. and suffocated every day.”
Bourla said he expects more normalcy next year “without a variation that could change everything.”
“I think we are in a good trend mid-year after having everything under control,” he said.
