COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing has begun at a risk, will be ready by year-end: Pfizer CEO

The CEO of Pfizer has said that the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the pharmaceutical giant might be ready by the year-end. Albert Bourla said that the key data from the trial should be available by October and will be submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval. The Pfizer CEO also added that the company is already manufacturing the coronavirus vaccine to be ready for supply if it receives approval.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine 

In an interview with CBS News, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla informed people that the US pharmaceutical might be able to provide COVID-19 vaccine to Americans if things go well with the trials and FDA approval. He also said that Pfizer has already manufactured hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses to be prepared if the approval goes through. Talking about the COVID-19 vaccine trial, Bourla said that they are aiming to recruit younger people for the trial which is currently studying people from 18 to 85 years old. People with comorbidities, special conditions chronic health conditions and illnesses like HIV will also be recruited to expand the scope of the study, added the Pfizer CEO in his interview. 

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During the interview, Bourla said that now that Pfizer is taking the risk of manufacturing the vaccine without approval, the pharmaceutical company may have to take a financial hit in case the vaccine fails. He also said that in case the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine turns out to be effective and safe, chances are that a large number of people will not have access to the vaccine until the second half of 2021. Speaking about his decision of developing the vaccine without government funding, the CEO said that he wanted to protect Pfizer scientists from politics and ensure that they are free to focus on the scientific challenges. 

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COVID-19 Vaccine Update

Oxford University and Serum Institute of India's COVID-19 vaccine candidate being developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical were halted after a volunteer developed an illness. On Saturday, Oxford University announced that the trials will be resumed while adding that with 18,000 test cases, some of the volunteers are bound to get unwell. In India, the vaccine trials haven't been resumed yet since the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) order Serum Institute of India to halt trials and the recruitment of volunteers for the trials. While on the other hand, the COVID-19 vaccine candidate of Bharat Biotech 'Covaxin' had successful animal trials. 

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