“Given the enormity of our mission, clinical data were important to us in deciding on the right candidate for a Covid-19 vaccine,” Pfizer’s Kathrin Jansen told the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.
“We evaluated not just one, but four different candidates in Phase 1 to be able to make real time scientific decisions to select the best candidate,” Jansen added.
”With regard to safety, we were looking for the most favorable safety and tolerability profile in both younger and older adults. With regard to immunogenicity, we were looking for the broadest antiviral immune responses, most likely associated with efficacy. And with regard to a rapid pandemic response we were looking for the candidate that could be developed and produced most efficiently,” she said.
Jansen said when it comes to mRNA vaccines, “we have a deep scientific understanding of how such vaccines work.”
She said that mRNA vaccines “can be developed and scaled up quickly,” offering “a clear advantage,” over other types of vaccines.