(ANSA) - MILAN, NOVEMBER 30 - The CEO of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, expects a "substantial decrease" in the effectiveness of the current vaccines against the Omicron variant of Covid while it will take months to develop new effective vaccines. "I think there is no way the effectiveness can be the same as we had with Delta," Bancel said in an interview with the Financial Times website.
For Bancel a "substantial decline" in the efficacy of the old vaccines is foreseeable: "I don't know how much because we have to wait for the data. But all the scientists I spoke to say that 'it won't be good'".
The CEO of Moderna, whose words had a strong impact on the markets, causing stock exchanges and oil to fall, expects to have reliable data on the effectiveness of the current vaccines and on the danger of the variant in a couple of weeks but it will take months before a production is available. mass of new vaccines.
"Moderna and Pfizer cannot produce billions of doses next week, it's mathematically impossible. But can we have billions of doses in the summer? Sure," Bancel said, predicting Moderna could produce 2-3 billion doses in 2022. (ANSA).