Pfizer CEO blames Pfizer itself and developing countries for their own low vaccination rates: The pharma manufacturing giant could have done more to improve low vaccination rates in developing countries, but the manufacturer’s efforts to ramp up supplies were met with hurdles such as poor infrastructure and vaccine hesitancy, CEO Albert Bourla said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council yesterday. Several developing countries requested delays in vaccine shipments, Bourla said, though he admitted that these issues should have been anticipated and preempted through partnerships with NGOs.

Hold up: is this the same Pfizer that allegedly “bullied” low-income countries over vaccine contracts? The company has come under scrutiny in recent months over claims it imposed harsh and even abusive terms on countries in vaccine supply agreements. Unredacted contracts show that Pfizer prohibited Brazil from accepting donations of its vaccine or buying extra doses from other countries. The company is also accused of “holding to ransom” countries including Argentina over vaccine supply contracts, demanding states put up sovereign assets like embassy buildings as collateral against future legal cases, causing months-long procurement delays.

Calls to waive IP rights for vaccines have become more urgent on account of Omicron: The World Trade Organization (WTO) has delayed a conference scheduled for this week, where members were set to discuss a waiver of intellectual property rights on vaccines. The WTO cited renewed travel restrictions amid the emergence of Omicron as behind the delay, though health experts and countries including India and South Africa argue that the new variant only makes the task more pressing. Vaccine makers including Pfizer have repeatedly come under fire from health organizations and officials in low- and middle-income countries for refusing to waive IP rights to allow them to manufacture their own versions of the vaccine.

Especially as news surfaces that Omicron variant could be four times more transmissible than Delta, according to a study by a Japanese scientist Hiroshi Nishiura who advises the country’s health ministry. The scientist analyzed genoma data from Omicron cases in South Africa to compare them with previous findings on the delta variant.

Pfizer has the solution for Omicron… more Pfizer: A third dose of the Pfizer jab could “neutralize the Omicron” variant based on results from an initial laboratory study, Pfizer and BioNTech said in a statement picked up by Bloomerg. The findings could accelerate booster drives taking place across countries worldwide and transform the standard two-shot regimen into a three-shot inoculation to protect against variants, writes Bloomberg.