09/07/2021 (Agence Europe) – The European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, provided assurances on Friday 9 July that the EU was “already prepared” in case a third dose of Pfizer/BioNtech’s vaccine proved necessary. The statement - reported by AFP after a press conference in Madrid - came after Pfizer and BioNtech announced that they had “seen encouraging data” in this regard. According to the preliminary data available to them, a booster dose given 6 months after the second dose would result in “high neutralisation titers”, 5 to 10 times higher than after two doses. While Pfizer and BioNtech believe that a third dose “has the potential to preserve the highest levels of protective efficacy against all currently tested variants”, they say they are still working on an updated version of their vaccine targeting the Delta variant. (AC)