Pfizer vaccine for Omicron to be ready in March for approval: CEO

Pfizer is developing a hybrid vaccine that combines its original shot with a formulation that shields against the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the drug giant’s top executive said.

Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla told CNBC on Monday that Pfizer is already manufacturing doses, as authorities contend with huge Covid-19 infection counts. He added that the company will be ready in March to approach US regulators for clearance.

A vaccine focused directly on the Omicron variant would also guard against breakthrough infections of a strain that has proven highly contagious, Bourla added.

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However, Bourla also assured that the existing regime of two vaccine shots and a booster has provided "reasonable" protection against serious health effects from Omicron.

Clearly [mRNA] is a very powerful technology and we’re just scratching the surface of it, he remarked.

Pfizer had said at the end of November, shortly after the Omicron strain was first detected in South Africa, that it was working on a standalone omicron-specific vaccine.