Pfizer CEO on Omicron Covid-19 Variant, Vaccine Supply

As a scientist, you sort out what you know and what you don't know, because there's a lot of speculation circulating right now. Thank you. I'm happy to be here all weekend. It has the characteristics that are of greatest concern. We have been preparing for that for months. I feel confident that the playbook will work. The playbook is what it is. One needs to know more about the virus. Protection against infections and the therapies to treat will be the second thing. Let's take it one at a time. I understand. I don't know why it is the clinical manifestations of this new virus. Is it making more severe disease? Is it easier to transmit? Is it going to older people? As we see more and more clinical cases coming out, are these things? We would know that in a few weeks. The second question is if this variant can escape the protection of our vaccine. I don't think he managed to not be that we don't protect the ball, I think that will be something that we will know in a couple of weeks. That is extremely unlikely. I think it could be anything from the protection being very high to it being reduced. For example, there's not by 7 percent. We need to know if this virus can escape the effect of the treatments that we have, because we have the injections. We have an oral pill. Our appeal is the expectation of what it is. I don't think the virus will escape. The effects on the body. The build of the molecule was designed to be able to maintain efficacy while the Varian relate device is used. The variant of the virus can change. This is why we chose a mechanism that doesn't depend on the spike but is attacking something that the virus needs to replicate. The process we are disrupting has nothing to do with this fight. The virus needs it very much. It's difficult to develop a variant from the virus. Doesn't mean they propose that we're blocking. We don't know. I think our appeal will work very well. We are waiting to see if the vaccine works after a booster dose, which would be very difficult, I think. We need to. We have already tried it and started the process of making a vaccine. We have a very high level of confidence that it will be ready in a hundred days. We have a high level of confidence that we can make it by billions. If we could, Doctor, take that apart. It will be a few weeks before we know how bad this variant is and how much it affects the community. Is that correct? We're talking a month. We are talking six weeks. What is your best guess? The more data we have the more accurate the prediction will be. We'll have a lot of information within a month. If it replicates fast or easily, it can overtake dealt. That's. When you said that the virus won't escape, I said what you said. You don't think completely. The question is how much can escape. If you are ninety or ninety five percent effective with the original virus, what percentage is it? Wow. We will know how much will escape the virus in two weeks. We will have a good idea about that. They have two to three weeks to figure out what they're going to do with these. We will test this virus if it's mitigated by a block of people or if it's mitigated by a single group of people. People that have been shot with Delta or better related vaccines are only allowed to do it for a short time. We did that because we have already done two vaccines other than the one that circulates. We don't use them because we don't need them. We have the delta and you have the better vaccines that are tailored for Omega. We don't use them because we don't need them. The vaccine is very effective against those things. Is it possible that the variant you created for the Delta might be more effective against the new variant? Are you? I don't. We would do it again. The good things that we got were also discussed. The amount. The dose was correct. The 30th. The first 30 microgram was taken from there. The second dose did not create any extra. We could use the same ones the third time because it was very wet. We didn't go to the hospital with the booster. That's important because the third dose reads verified responses. Even if a migraine doesn't work, I'm confident that it should be effective. We are going to 7 on the commerce. If the current vaccine is 90 to 95 percent effective against the Covid virus, do you think we need to do anything? Is it less than seventy five percent? Is it 70? Is it less than 50 percent? You know what you say at that point. A new version is needed. I think that would have to be assessed in conjunction with other information and data going. I believe that if we go below 70, it would be a good time to think that we can switch. President Biden told us earlier this hour that he was already talking with you about what would happen if we got to that stage. He said he doesn't think we're there yet but he's already talking with you about the possibility of quicker production. Assume that happened. How quickly could you make a new version of the vaccine? They spoke with the president and she mentioned me. We can all have within a hundred days. To be accurate, ninety five. We can submit a dossier and ask for approval. It's up to them how long it would take to approve us. They are expecting to have streamlined processes for that. They can see the same thing. The good news is that we have it. The level of it is risky. This quarter we will make a billion dollars. One billion dollars. We can easily produce four billion doses a year. I don't think we will lose material volume if we have a new vaccine. We would start treating our manufacturing lines overnight. It would be a little bit of a transition as if your weeks were to be monitored with some of the inventories but we would be able to have very fast production of vaccine if needed. I think what people get caught in with new thread knowledge is there. The treatment was one of the things that we discussed. We are going to make 80 million doses of treatment and we are going to announce it on TV today. We are confident that we can reach that capacity for the next 22 years. A few weeks ago, I announced a significant improvement in manufacturing of us. I want to get the vaccine again, but I want to stay on the subject. The pills that you have here are the antiviral treatment. Are you sure that those will work against this new variant? You need to do more research to make sure that's correct. We will do more research to make sure this is correct. I'm very confident that this will work. Let's talk about South Africa and southern Africa for a second. I looked it up today and I think the vaccination rate for South Africa is around forty three percent, not a very high level. There is a problem with getting vaccinations into South Africa. There were not enough vaccines six months ago. The African continent has been very strong. Five of the eight African countries that could be placed in a travel ban by the U.S. government are currently five of the population. To say something. Everyone in this list can ask their governments to stop sending vaccines because they have too much. Why is that happening? I think it's a combination of things. IBEX vaccination sirens centers apply to people. Some of it has to do with something. Less of an issue is what one is called. There are a lot of cases in those places. It's more logistical infrastructure right now. I asked our people how to make sure they have enough to eat. We are. We are. I'm sorry. This is. My God. We like your dog, but we have to make sure that we can send the embryos to the countries so that they can absorb the vaccines and build infrastructure. I think W H O has a big role to play. We're all concerned about supply chains if you get to that point, just a moment on the manufacturing of a new version of the vaccine. I am aware of the manufacturing capability you have. Is there a question about the ingredients you would need to make the vaccine? I think it's the same. What are the different vaccines that you can get? It is the same material as ISE. They will have a different sequence in the molecule. I feel very confident that if we have the suites, we won't see a loss of capacity because of the DAX world. I think bears are answering a viewer's question. As we talk about all the different variations, it says how much is the same among the viruses and how much is different for the majority. There's a saying but the small differences they create create the initial box. The small part in the overall sequence is very different. The vaccine was very specialized. It was taking into account every single letter in the Army alphabet. That's the reason for the concern. Many of them are getting the further full dose booster. We'll be because it's so high. I think we'll see that. It was very good. We will have a new one even without Andrew. Soon. Doctor, we get to set our expectations. We should expect a world in which we need to get shots and boosters every year. Will there be a long line of variation in the new vaccines that you'll be using? I had predicted months ago that we would need the booster at six months. I think it would take six to eight months. I think that was correct. I said that we will need to get an already vaccinations and that you will need to get one for a long time because I thought that the virus will not go away. We will stay on that. I'm pretty sure these are the right predictions with everything I've seen. The variant of the virus that I believe will stay around for a long time. I believe that was on your vaccinations, either with the same or tailor made vaccines. We didn't have the ability to have a high level of prevention and violence before. That is effective for treatment. When people get sick they only want to go to the hospital. That is a big deal. I think we have all the tools in our tool box to win this. But.