Pfizer, Moderna focus on fall 2022 vaccine plans
Whether or not people will need to be perpetually boosting against the coronavirus and its seemingly never-ending stream of variants remains unknown, but vaccine manufacturers are already preparing for a possible need for additional boosters in the fall.
"We have to be prepared for whatever evolution gives us," said Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel.
Bancel, as well as Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert Bourla, spoke to Yahoo Finance during the annual JPMorgan Health Care conference Monday.
Both companies are pursuing Omicron-specific booster doses, and Bourla said Pfizer is also pursuing a new version of the vaccine that should come in by the end of the first quarter of the year.
"We are working on a new version of our vaccine, our 1.1....that will cover Omicron as well. Of course, we are waiting to have the final results. The vaccine will be ready by March," Bourla said.
"We need to see if we will need it, and we need to see what place it can take in the overall fight against the virus," Bourla added.
Pfizer is in the lead with doses available for younger age groups, as well as a fully approved vaccine. By comparison, Moderna's vaccine remains under emergency use authorization and the company is awaiting FDA approval as well as action on doses for younger populations.
The under age 5 population remains unvaccinated, which Bourla says he hopes will be resolved quickly — in a few weeks rather than a few months.
Both CEOs say it is unclear what the needs for boosters or variant-specific vaccines will be by the end of the year.
Bancel said he is speaking with public health leaders in the U.S., U.K., and other countries, to understand how the company should be preparing for a fall 2022 booster.
He has signed contracts for $18.5 billion in doses for 2022, an increase of $1.5 billion from late 2021, highlighting the ongoing concerns that countries' health officials have about the pandemic and a need to have boosters handy.
Recently the CDC reduced booster windows from the primary course to 5 months, to account for waning antibody protection by the vaccines. Other platforms, such as Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) adenovirus vector vaccine, provide more stable protection but at a lower threshold, by comparison.
Pfizer remains the most in-demand vaccine as the pharma giant has the manufacturing capacity to meet demand for mRNA vaccines. Meanwhile, a recent study from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows Moderna had the best protection against more severe cases during the Delta wave.
Global doses
The African Union remains one of the most vulnerable regions to COVID-19 and the threat of new variants. It has struggled to receive vaccines doses, either due to supply constraints at the start of 2021 or due to the struggle with logistics as the supply pivoted to mRNA versus more traditional vaccine platforms.
It's why despite increased supply of mRNA vaccines globally, the countries have denied more doses from both Moderna and Pfizer, according to both CEOs.
"In the fall (of 2021) we saw a total switch, going from undersupply to oversupply of vaccines, including for low income countries," Bancel said.
On any given day in November, the company had anywhere between 50 million -100 million doses sitting in warehouses waiting for shipments to the countries in need, he said.
But just last week, the African Union said it does not need the second quarter purchased doses from last year, as the supply from donations from the U.S., China and others have become sufficient, Bancel said.
The current problem facing African and other low income nations is the infrastructure to get shots in arms.
"We need to do much more as a world to help for the last mile, getting doses in arms. It is not any more a problem of doses. We are now moving to a situation where we have more doses than people wanting vaccines," Bancel said.
Bourla noted that in addition, there is misinformation circulating — an issue globally — that is also creating hesitancy, and it is up to not just public health and philanthropic agencies, but also up to Pfizer itself to help address any concerns.
The company also attempted to help distribute more doses, using drones, but ran into an additional hurdle of not having vaccine sites in remote parts of African countries to receive the doses.
"All of these are issues that need to be addressed, and that should be the focus of everyone right now," Bourla said.
Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem
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