By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) stocks were trading higher in Friday’s premarket on the partners’ plan to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to distribute a booster shot of their COVID-19 vaccine.
The companies had earlier conducted a study whose results suggested that patients' defenses against the virus were significantly enhanced by a third shot of the vaccine.
BioNTech was up nearly 10% and Pfizer 0.5%.
Alongside, the companies are also working on an updated version of the vaccine that targets the full spike protein of the Delta variant, BioNtech said.
The booster will be in addition to the two shots currently being given at three-to-four-month interval. BioNTech said the third dose may be needed within 6 to 12 months after full vaccination.
New variants of the disease are forcing drug companies to update the original versions of their vaccines to ensure that they continue to offer the same high degree of protection.
The first vaccines were built on the virus that originated in China in 2019. Since then, it has mutated several times with the Delta variant, first identified in India, being the most highly-transmissible variant yet.