Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tests positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing ‘very mild symptoms’

By Naomi Thomas, CNN

Albert Bourla, CEO of drugmaker Pfizer, has tested positive for Covid-19 and has “very mild symptoms,” he said in a tweet on Monday.

“I would like to let you know that I have tested positive for #COVID19,” Bourla wrote. “I am thankful to have received four doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and I am feeling well while experiencing very mild symptoms. I am isolating and have started a course of Paxlovid.”

He said that he is “confident I will have a speedy recovery,” due to how far the world has come in efforts to battle the coronavirus and expressed gratitude for his colleagues who worked to make vaccines and treatments available.

Pfizer shared the same information in a company statement.

Pfizer’s vaccine was the first Covid-19 vaccine in the United States to receive US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization in December 2020. Since then, it has received full approval for use in people age 16 and up and is authorized for other ages groups down to children as young as six months. It is also authorized as a booster dose for those age 5 and older and as a second booster dose for adults age 50 and older or people who are immunocompromised.

Pfizer is also working on updated shots to target the Omicron variant, with the company saying they could be available in the early fall depending on signoff by federal officials.

Bourla shared information about the company’s oral antiviral Covid-19 treatment, Paxlovid, in his messages on Twitter.

Paxlovid was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA in December 2021. Paxlovid can be used for treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in people age 12 and up and who weight at least 88 pounds and are at risk of severe disease.

President Joe Biden took Paxlovid when he tested positive for Covid-19 last month.

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