The drugmaker said on Monday that Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE have submitted preliminary data from an early trial to US regulators to seek authorization for a booster dose of its COVID19 vaccine.
They said that compared to the two doses, the third dose showed significantly higher neutralizing antibodies against the initial SARS CoV2 virus, as well as antibodies against highly infectious Beta and Delta variants.
Pfizer stated that the effectiveness of its vaccines will decrease over time, and cited a study that showed that the peak value four months after the second vaccination was 96%, and its effectiveness was 84%. Some countries, including Israel, have begun to implement enhanced dose plans.
However, the decision of some wealthy countries to purchase booster injections has aroused the anger of health activists and the World Health Organization, which has called for a moratorium on booster injections at least until the end of September.
Pfizer and BioNTech have stated that all patients in the trial received the third injection of BNT162b2 eight to nine months after the second injection.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers will send trial data to the European Medicines Agency and other regulatory agencies in the coming weeks. They said that the results of the third-dose late-stage test are expected to come out soon.
Last week, U.S. regulators authorized Pfizer Biotechnology and Moderna Inc to provide a third dose of the COVID 19 vaccine to people with compromised immune systems. These people may be less protective of the two-dose regimen.
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