The German laboratories BioNTech and American Pfizer announced Thursday that they had successfully completed the second phase of testing a combined vaccine to fight against influenza and Covid-19. The clinical tests aimed to demonstrate the “safety, tolerance and immunogenicity” of the new product developed using mRNA technology “in healthy adults aged 18 to 64 years”, indicate the partners.
“Simplify vaccination practices”
The vaccine “has the potential to mitigate the impact of both respiratory diseases in a single injection and could simplify vaccination practices for providers, patients and health systems around the world,” said Annaliesa Anderson, chief scientific officer. from Pfizer, cited in a press release. “Combined vaccines have the potential to become a pillar of routine vaccination against respiratory diseases, in particular for the vaccination of populations at risk of developing serious diseases,” added the boss and co-founder of BioNTech Ugur Sahin.
The two groups want to begin phase 3 tests “in the coming months”, the last step before possible marketing. Other groups, such as the Americans Moderna or Novamax, are also working on the development of a combined vaccine.
Drop in demand for the Covid vaccine
In 2020, BioNTech and Pfizer were able to quickly and successfully create the world’s first approved Covid-19 vaccine, which generated billions of euros in revenue for both companies.
The German biotechnology laboratory, created in 2008, was the first to see its vaccine using messenger RNA technology approved in a large number of countries at the end of 2020, just a few months after the outbreak of the pandemic.
The German firm saw its sales and profits skyrocket in the 2021 and 2022 financial years, a period gone since the end of the health emergency linked to the Covid-19 virus and its variants. BioNTech recently announced that it would have to write down its stocks linked to the Covid vaccine by 900 million euros, due to a drop in demand for this product.