[ExI] pfizer on directed evolution

[Will Steinberg]

He was a consultant, as he noted in the video even and as can be seen in
archived posts that direct to his LinkedIn page.  I would very much believe
that pharma companies outsource their most unethical experiments.

On Thu, Feb 2, 2023, 12:30 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> Pfizer says they aren’t doing it.  They haven’t made any statement
> regarding any employee named Jordan Tristan Walker, so I would guess the
> video freak-out guy was likely a phony, or perhaps a lower-level employee,
> or a contractor or something.  He looked pretty young to be a director of
> anything.  In any case, here’s Pfizer’s response:
>
>
>
> New York, N.Y., January 27, 2023 – Allegations have recently been made
> related to gain of function and directed evolution research at Pfizer and
> the company would like to set the record straight.
>
> In the ongoing development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer
> has not conducted gain of function or directed evolution research. Working
> with collaborators, we have conducted research where the original
> SARS-CoV-2 virus has been used to express the spike protein from new
> variants of concern. This work is undertaken once a new variant of concern
> has been identified by public health authorities. This research provides a
> way for us to rapidly assess the ability of an existing vaccine to induce
> antibodies that neutralize a newly identified variant of concern. We then
> make this data available through peer reviewed scientific journals and use
> it as one of the steps to determine whether a vaccine update is required.
>
> In addition, to meet U.S. and global regulatory requirements for our oral
> treatment, PAXLOVID™, Pfizer undertakes in vitro work (e.g., in a
> laboratory culture dish) to identify potential resistance mutations to
> nirmatrelvir, one of PAXLOVID's two components. With a naturally evolving
> virus, it is important to routinely assess the activity of an antiviral.
> Most of this work is conducted using computer simulations or mutations of
> the main protease–a non-infectious part of the virus. In a limited number
> of cases when a full virus does not contain any known gain of function
> mutations, such virus may be engineered to enable the assessment of
> antiviral activity in cells. In addition, in vitro resistance selection
> experiments are undertaken in cells incubated with SARS-CoV-2 and
> nirmatrelvir in our secure Biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratory to assess
> whether the main protease can mutate to yield resistant strains of the
> virus. It is important to note that these studies are required by U.S. and
> global regulators for all antiviral products and are carried out by many
> companies and academic institutions in the U.S. and around the world.
>
> Fact-based information rooted in sound science is vitally important to
> overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and Pfizer remains committed to
> transparency and helping alleviate the devastating burden of this disease.
>
>
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