Bogotá D.C., May 23, 2021. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection constantly reviews new scientific evidence on Covid-19 vaccines to keep the National Vaccination Plan updated. Recent publications suggest important benefits of extending the time between doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (BNT162b2) to 12 weeks.

"We are constantly reviewing the scientific literature concerning the effectiveness and safety of the Covid-19 vaccine, in order to make the decisions that best protect people against this disease," said Leonardo Arregocés, director of Medicines and Health Technologies, adding that he has observed that the Pfizer vaccine schedule has been changed in some countries with significant benefits for the population.

For example, in the United Kingdom and Canada, both countries modified the time for the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to 12 and 16 weeks, respectively. Publications that present the results of these decisions began to appear recently, with interesting conclusions:

1. In the UK it was observed that the protection achieved with the Pfizer vaccine when the time between doses is 12 weeks is higher than when the time between doses is 3 weeks.
2. The first dose of the vaccine confers protection that in some studies is as high as 70%.
3. Canada decided to extend the time between doses because it was thus able to vaccinate more people in less time, reducing the number of cases and deaths, compared to when it used the three-week interval.
   

Arregocés indicated that the effectiveness of vaccines is constantly being reviewed "and at this moment these new conclusions allow us to know that, in addition to having fewer cases, people are better protected against the Covid-19 disease."

This outcome has been reviewed in conjunction with the Colombian Association of Infectious Diseases (ACIN) and members of the Colombian Consensus for the care, diagnosis, and management of Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 infection, who agree and recommend this way of advancing with the vaccination using the Pfizer biological agent to have a larger portion of the population better protected, while reducing the number of cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus.

Additionally, ACIN notes, this change in the schedule to prolong the second dose of Pfizer's vaccine to 12 weeks will allow increasing the speed of vaccination in the country, in addition to the benefits already mentioned.

This evidence, along with the recommendation presented today by the ACIN and the members of the Colombian Consensus, will be taken to the Vaccine Advisory Committee for their decision, supported by the evidence that benefits the entire population.