China News Service, January 29th. Recently, a video circulated on the Internet said that a man who is said to be the director of the R&D department of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer revealed in an unannounced interview that the company is considering "developing its own variant of the new coronavirus."
The man also called the vaccine business a "cash cow."
Image source: On January 27, local time, a screenshot of the statement released by Pfizer’s official website
On the 27th local time, Pfizer made an urgent statement on its official website, hoping to clarify the facts.
Pfizer's statement said it wanted to clarify the facts following recent allegations that Pfizer conducts gain-of-function and directed evolution research.
The statement stated that during the joint research and development of the new crown vaccine jointly conducted by Pfizer and the German biotechnology company, Pfizer did not conduct "gain of function" or "directed evolution" research.
The statement also said, "What we are working with our collaborators is to use the original new coronavirus to express the spike protein from the new 'variant of interest'."
Pfizer said the study could rapidly assess the ability of existing COVID-19 vaccines to induce antibodies to neutralize the newly discovered variant.
"We make this data available through peer-reviewed scientific journals as one of the steps in determining whether an improved vaccine is needed."
Pfizer also emphasized that factual information based on sound science is critical to overcoming the new crown pandemic, and the company remains committed to transparency to help reduce the devastating burden of the disease.