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Pfizer's chief executive tests positive for COVID-19 for second time in two months

Pfizer's chief executive has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in two months.

Albert Bourla, the head of the company that created one of the most widely used coronavirus vaccines, said he was "feeling well and symptom free".

Mr Bourla, 60, contacted COVID back in August and had started a course of the company's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid.

Paxlovid is an antiviral medication used to treat high-risk people, such as older patients.

Mr Bourla has received four doses of the vaccine his company developed alongside its German partner BioNTech - but said he missed out on getting the new bivalent booster due to contracting the disease in recent months.

"I've not had the new bivalent booster yet, as I was following CDC guidelines to wait three months since my previous COVID case which was back in mid-August," Mr Bourla added.

Developed by Moderna and the team of Pfizer and BioNTech, the new so-called bivalent shots aim to tackle the BA.5 and BA.4 Omicron subvariants, which make up 84.8% and 1.8%, respectively, of all circulating variants in the United States, based on latest data.

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In August, the FDA authorized Pfizer and Moderna's updated booster shots that target the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.

A US federal health agency said this week over 25 million doses of the new booster shots had been sent out. That consists mostly of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as production of the Moderna vaccine ramps up.