Weeks after the Food and Drug Administration recommended that certain individuals should receive a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the CEO of BioNTech said another shot may be needed in 2022.

Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNtech, told the Financial Times that new variants of COVID may require a new formula of the vaccine to combat the virus. Sahin said while vaccines protect against delta, the most contagious strain, new variants in the future may emerge that can evade booster shots and the body’s immune defenses.

“This year [a different vaccine] is completely unneeded, but by mid-next year, it could be a different situation,” Sahin told the Financial Times. “This is a continuous evolution, and that evolution has just started.”

BioNTech, a German company, partnered with U.S. pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer Inc. to develop its vaccine, which is currently only one approved by the FDA.

Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted initial data to U.S. regulators about the use of the vaccine in children aged 5 to 11.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 228 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have been administered in the U.S. with more than 100 million Americans fully vaccinated with the company’s vaccine.

https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/10/biontech-ceo-says-another-covid-shot-will-likely-be-needed-by-mid-2022-due-to-virus-mutations.html