Pfizer hopes to launch in the fall of 2023 its vaccine against RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), which causes bronchiolitis, reveals Le Figaro Thursday. The American laboratory targets pregnant women and the elderly. "We hope to have a green light in time to be able to deploy our vaccine as early as next winter season," Annaliesa Anderson, chief scientific officer of R&D for Pfizer's vaccines division, told the newspaper.
The tests conducted by the search giant are expected to be approved soon, with Pfizer benefiting from "fast-track procedures in the United States and Europe," says Annaliesa Anderson. The laboratory hopes to validate the vaccine for seniors in May and for pregnant women next August.
A promising market
The bronchiolitis vaccine market could be big for Pfizer. It is estimated at $10 billion a year within ten years for seniors and $3 billion for infants, Capital says. Enough to take over from the vaccine against Covid-19, whose use could decline in the coming years. In 2022, sales of coronavirus injections had raised $37.8 billion for Pfizer.
Bronchiolitis, which causes babies to cough and difficulty breathing, is usually not serious. But this season, it caused an epidemic on a scale not seen in more than a decade in France. This outbreak put hospitals in difficulty, especially as it added to successive waves of Covid, as well as the seasonal flu epidemic. About 50,000 hospitalizations a year are related to bronchiolitis in France, most of which involve young children.
- Health
- Bronchiolitis
- Vaccine
- Pfizer-BioNTech
- USA