PUURS, Belgium – US drugmaker Pfizer is ready to launch its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for both older adults and pregnant women in the US and Europe later this year, executives said recently.
Both Pfizer and British drugmaker GSK have RSV vaccines they hope to launch in the US and Europe this year, pending regulators´ approval.
“We are anticipating approval in both the US and Europe in time for rollout in the fall,” Kena Swanson, Pfizer’s head of viral vaccines research & development, told a media briefing at the company’s biggest manufacturing and packaging site globally.
RSV is a leading cause of pneumonia in infants and the elderly, and decades of research have finally resulted in the two successful vaccines that Pfizer and GSK are racing to introduce.
Some 14,000 people die annually in the US of the lower respiratory tract disease caused by the virus, and analysts see a multi-billion dollar market for the vaccine by the end of the decade.
GSK told Reuters recently that it is also ready to launch its RSV vaccine for older adults in the US this year without supply constraints.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to make an approval decision on both vaccines by May.
Annaliesa Anderson, Pfizer’s head of vaccines research & development, told the same briefing that the company anticipates a population of about 4 million pregnant women annually in the US who could eventually receive its RSV vaccine, though the market will take time to shape.
Given how contagious RSV is, the best way to protect infants from contracting the virus and becoming severely ill is by vaccinating their mothers during pregnancy, said Anderson.
GSK last year voluntarily stopped its clinical trial of its own RSV vaccine on pregnant women and is currently only pursuing the use of its vaccine on older adults, a company spokesperson told Reuters.
