We might need an annual booster shot: Global medical lead, GSK
Even as Covid-19 numbers continue to recede across the globe, experts still believe that different options will be needed to deal with the viral infection even if it heads towards becoming a seasonal disease. Yan Sergerie, the global medical lead, adult vaccination, vaccines, at GlaxoSmithKline, tells ET's Teena Thacker that the company is working on a number of collaborations to fight Covid.
Edited excerpts:
GSK is working on new Covid-19 vaccines. Do you think introducing a vaccine will be helpful now that Covid is almost over?
I don't think it's almost over. We see the number of cases decreasing now, is it due to the fact that we're not testing as much as we used to, but certainly, we see the number of related deaths decreasing drastically, which is very good news from a public health perspective. The problem, though, is that we know Covid mutates a lot. So, it's you would need to rely on recommendations from health authorities but it's likely that this will become seasonal influenza. I'm going to be waiting for recommendations into this but we might need an annual booster shot. We have to learn how to live with Covid. And for that, I do still think that we need different options. It's very important that we have a wide spectrum of tools when it comes to this to ensure that this disease does not become another pandemic and is well controlled and then we maintain this level of Covid-19 immunity across the population. So yes, I do believe there's still room for this, and it's not too late.
GSK is working on new Covid-19 vaccines. Do you think introducing a vaccine will be helpful now that Covid is almost over?
I don't think it's almost over. We see the number of cases decreasing now, is it due to the fact that we're not testing as much as we used to, but certainly, we see the number of related deaths decreasing drastically, which is very good news from a public health perspective. The problem, though, is that we know Covid mutates a lot. So, it's you would need to rely on recommendations from health authorities but it's likely that this will become seasonal influenza. I'm going to be waiting for recommendations into this but we might need an annual booster shot. We have to learn how to live with Covid. And for that, I do still think that we need different options. It's very important that we have a wide spectrum of tools when it comes to this to ensure that this disease does not become another pandemic and is well controlled and then we maintain this level of Covid-19 immunity across the population. So yes, I do believe there's still room for this, and it's not too late.
In terms of mRNA vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer are already there in the market. How do you think GSK will be able to make a space for itself?
We have a number of collaborations and currently we have three licensed subunit adjuvated vaccines: the one from Medicago in Canada, SK Bioscience in South Korea which is under licensure for Europe and other countries as well. And then finally we have Sanofi where we're currently looking at regulations for European regions. Now in terms of the mRNA vaccines, like you said, Moderna and Pfizer are the first generation of vaccines and now working on those bivalent vaccines is crucial. We do have this collaborations with CureVac, a German biotech, where we're looking at the second generations of Covid vaccines, like could we combine different variants of Covid, could we combine Covid with influenza to reduce the number of injections and increase the compliance, could we have a modified structures of the RNA to make it more immunogenic. So, we're looking at all of those questions. If everything goes according to plan, we currently have four mRNA candidate vaccines including Covid in the pipeline. We are expecting results either by this year, or very early 2023.
India is a price-sensitive market. How have you thought about handling lower- and middle-income countries? Or is focus only on the European and the US market?
Our interest lies where there's an unmet medical need. And this goes with the lower- and middle-income countries. We have an entire global health division looking at this from a GSK perspective. India is a very important country for us as well. So, it's not related to the pricing. We have a pricing strategy for high income countries that really recognises it and country-specific circumstances, but we are also very respectful of their healthcare budget when it comes to the lower- and middle-income country. We have a tier pricing strategy.
(The writer was in Wavre, Belgium, at theinvitation of GSK)
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