Belgium is to order over 3.8 million doses of a vaccine adapted to the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus from Pfizer-BioNTech, following approval by the Council of Ministers on Friday of a rider to an existing vaccine order with the pharmaceutical group, Belga news agency reports.
An adjustment to the 2022 budget will also be made to accommodate the additional order, which will be for 3,896,165 doses of the variant-proof vaccine, the office of Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said.
Pfizer-BioNTech alliance had announced this week that it had launched tests of its specific vaccination against Omicron. The pharmaceutical alliance is assessing its formula not just for booster shots but also for vaccinations to be administered to previously unvaccinated persons.
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The new vaccine, like previous ones, is based on the RNA Messenger technique, which makes it relatively easy to update them to address mutations specific to new variants.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla had said in early January that the U.S. pharmaceutical giant could be ready to apply for authorisations for the new Omicron-proof vaccine by early March.
