Pfizer’s boss in UK was so confident about the safety of Covid that he allowed his 6-year-old daughter to get it right away.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Ben Osborn, who runs the British arm of the US drug giant and is head of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said he has had ‘blunt’ conversations with those opposed to vaccines.
Asked if Pfizer’s jab, developed rapidly with German partner BioNTech was safe, he said: ‘I think the biggest reassurance I would give is that I would give the vaccine to my six-year-old daughter tomorrow if that were authorised.’
Pfizer boss in UK, Pfizer UK, is so sure of Covid vaccine’s safety, he will allow his six year old daughter to receive it immediately
Experts and regulators in the UK are considering whether to approve the vaccine’s use in five to 11-year-olds. Pfizer’s jab was last week approved for use on children as young as five by the European Medicines Agency and is also authorised for use in American children.
Mr Osborn said he has frequently been asked about the safety of the vaccine by sceptics concerned at the speed of its development – in just 259 days.
‘It’s frustrating but it’s part of the job,’ he said. ‘The most important message is, yes, it’s been done at speed but no corners have been cut.’
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Ben Osborn, who runs the British arm of the US drug giant and is head of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said he has had ‘blunt’ conversations with those opposed to vaccines
Pfizer also addressed concerns about existing vaccines not offering protection against Omicron, a new variant of the virus.
The firm said yesterday it had begun running ‘neutralisation tests on the new Omicron variant of concern and expect to have initial data in the coming weeks’.
It added that if the variant escapes the protection of the vaccine, it expects ‘to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days’.