Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Friday said that Israel "has become the world's lab" for his company's coronavirus vaccine.
In an interview with NBC News, Bourla said, "I believe Israel has become the world’s lab right now because they are using only our vaccine at this state and they have vaccinated a very big part of their population, so we can study both economy and health indices."
"What we've seen is that the vaccine efficacy in real-world data is getting higher as we speak, following the second vaccination, so seven days compared to 14 days post-second vaccination, there is a difference in efficacy," he added.
When asked whether someone who had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could transmit the virus to others, Bourla said, "It is something that needs to be confirmed, and the real-world data that we are getting from Israel and other studies will help us understand this better."
"But there are a lot of indicators right now that are telling us that there is a protection against the transmission of the disease," Bourla added.
Regarding pediatric trials of his vaccine, Bourla told NBC News, "We have already licensed for kids 16 and above... we are already doing trials for kids between 11 years old all the way to 16, and I hope that we will be able to have data in a couple of months. We are also planning to initiate pediatric studies from a younger age, from age 5 all the way to 11. And I believe we should have data about this population by the end of the year."
The vaccine provides immunity for at least six months, Bourla said, but tests will need to be done at the one-year mark in order to determine if it provides immunity for a full year.