Oxford did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. (Representative)
Oxford scientists are preparing to rapidly produce new versions of their vaccine to combat the most contagious variants of emerging COVID-19 discovered in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
The team behind the Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc vaccine is conducting feasibility studies to reconfigure the technology, the newspaper said, citing a confirmation from the University of Oxford.
Scientists were working to estimate how quickly they could reconfigure their ChAdOx vaccine platform, the report said.
A university spokesman told the newspaper that Oxford is carefully assessing the impact of new variants on vaccine immunity and evaluating the processes needed for the rapid development of adjusted COVID-19 vaccines.
Oxford did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Separately, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that the country’s drug regulator will be ready and able to approve new versions of the COVID-19 vaccines designed to combat new variants of the coronavirus that may appear.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by the NDTV team and is published from a syndicated feed.)