BRASILIA (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc will study the effectiveness of its vaccine against COVID-19 by inoculating the whole population over the age of 12 in a town in southern Brazil, the company said on Wednesday.
The study will be conducted in Toledo, population 143,000, in the west of Parana state, together with Brazil’s National Vaccination Program, local health authorities, a hospital and the federal university.
Pfizer said the purpose was to study the behavior of COVID-19 in a “real life scenario” after the population has been vaccinated.
“The initiative is the first and only of its kind to be undertaken in a developing country in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company,” Pfizer said.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; editing by Jason Neely)