The Pfizer/BioNTech consortium announced Thursday that it will begin testing this week a combined vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, responsible for Covid-19, and the flu, which could pave the way for better uptake of vaccination for both diseases.
The two companies said in a statement that the vaccine in question is a single dose and is the result of a combination of Pfizer’s messenger RNA (mRNA)-based flu vaccine and the modified covid-19 booster vaccine on the Ómicron variant, developed by the two companies.
Phase 1 testing will take place in the United States and 180 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 64 are expected to participate. The first participant in this study will be immunized this week. “The follow-up period for each participant will be six months in total,” the consortium explains.
together with our partner @pfizertoday we announced the start of a Phase 1 clinical trial in the US for a single dose #mRNA-based combination vaccine candidate for seasonal flu and COVID-19. The first patient has already been dosed. https://t.co/pRRYtJCxTI pic.twitter.com/CXgkAj3ePO
– BioNTech SE (@BioNTech_Group) November 3, 2022
Annaliesa Anderson, head of vaccine development at US drugmaker Pfizer, said the combined vaccine “could simplify immunization practices against these two respiratory pathogens, potentially leading to better vaccine uptake for both diseases.”
“Even with existing seasonal flu vaccines, the burden of this virus is severe worldwide, causing thousands of deaths and hospitalizations each year,” she said.
The CEO and co-founder of Germany’s BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, indicated that the goal is to “provide an efficient way to get immunized against the two serious respiratory diseases with evolving viruses, which require adaptation to the vaccine”.
It is recalled that Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have developed one of the most widely used vaccines to fight covid-19.
The makers of Moderna and Novavax vaccines are also testing combined vaccinations against Covid-19 and flu.
Source: DN
