Albert Bourla, Chief Executive Officer of US-based pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, encountered a series of tough questions about the efficacy of its Covid vaccine on the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum meeting, but he repeatedly ignored the queries and a video on it has gone viral.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) for a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged between 5 to 11 years at least five months after completion of the primary vaccine series.
As of March 16, only 27 per cent of children aged 5-11 had received two vaccine doses, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Pfizer's Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) has been approved for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in adults and pediatric patients
If authorised, the vaccine regimen would benefit nearly 28 million more kids in the US to get protection against the virus as the delta variant spreads.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech revealed the data in a document posted on Friday ahead of a meeting of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scheduled for October 26.
Last week, the US drugmaker and its German partner BioNTech, in a study, showed that their mRNA Covid vaccine is safe, well tolerated and produces robust neutralising antibody responses in children aged 5 to 11 years.
So far, about 1.4 billion doses of Pfizer and BioNTech two-dose revolutionary Covid jab, developed based on mRNA technology, has been shipped to more than 120 countries.
Currently, Pfizer's mRNA Covid vaccine is available in two packages: one with 450 doses and another with 1,170. But the vaccine's cold storage requirement limits where and for how long they can be kept, making it challenging for smaller facilities to store high quantities of the vaccine without wasting doses.
The vaccination campaign in Israel began on December 20, 2020, and was intended in the first phase for medical staff, people aged over 65, and chronic patients.
