Pfizer is testing a COVID-19 booster and pneumococcal vaccine combo

Pfizer vaccine.
(Image credit: JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

Pfizer has administered its first round of shots in a new study analyzing the "coadministration" of its pneumococcal vaccine candidate and a third "booster dose" of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the company announced on Monday.

The study, which focuses on fully-vaccinated adults over age 65, is intended to nail down the safety of the combined vaccines, and will evaluate immune responses produced by the vaccines when administered together, said Pfizer. The pneumococcal candidate itself is aimed at protecting adults "against 20 serotypes responsible for the majority of invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumonia," writes Reuters.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.