Pfizer vaccine appears effective against coronavirus variant found in Britain – study

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is expected to protect against a more infectious variant of the virus discovered in Britain that has spread worldwide, according to results from other laboratory tests released on Wednesday.

The encouraging results of a blood test from test participants are based on more extensive analyzes than those released by the American drugmaker last week.

Last week, Pfizer said a similar laboratory study showed that the vaccine was effective against a key mutation, called N501Y, found in two new highly transmissible variants that were spread across Britain and South Africa.

The most recent study, posted on bioRxiv.org, but not yet peer-reviewed, was carried out on a synthetic virus with 10 mutations that are characteristic of the variant known as B117 identified in Great Britain.

Among the 11 authors of the study are Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci, co-founders of BioNTech. Sahin is the chief executive and his wife Tuereci is the medical director.

This provides more hope, as the record number of daily deaths from COVID-19 is reported in Britain, which is believed to be caused by the most communicable variant. It also means that vaccine development, for now, will not have to start all over again.

But the virus needs to be monitored continuously to see if the changes maintain protection from vaccines, the study said.

For the test, blood samples collected from 16 vaccinated participants in previous clinical tests were exposed to a synthetic virus called pseudovirus, which was designed to have the same surface proteins as B117, characterized by 10 striking mutations.

The antibodies in the blood of volunteers who received the vaccine, known as Comirnaty, or BNT162b2, neutralized the pseudovirus as effectively as the older version of the coronavirus for which the product was initially designed.

Experts said the findings were reassuring and not surprising, and the results of similar studies on the South African variant would be closely watched.

“This makes it very unlikely that the UK variant will escape the protection provided by the vaccine,” said Jonathan Stoye, a virus science specialist at the Francis Crick Institute in Britain. “It will be interesting to do the same experiments with the South African variant.”

BioNTech said it plans to publish a more detailed analysis of the likely effect of its vaccine on the South African variant within a few days.

The world is pinning its hopes on vaccines to control the coronavirus, first detected in the city of Wuhan, in central China, in late 2019, as many countries impose increasingly strict blocks to try to bring the pandemic under control. .

VARIANTS AND VACCINES

Scientists say the variants are more transmissible than previously dominant, but are not believed to cause more serious illnesses.

“The South African strain has been detected in the UK – although currently in small numbers – but it appears to be on the rise in recent weeks,” said Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

“Variants with this mutation can reduce the vaccine’s effectiveness, although most likely all current vaccines are still highly effective.”

Experts call for further testing to establish whether vaccines will protect people during the virus mutation. COVID-19 killed more than 2 million people worldwide.

Preparing for possible changes to the COVID-19 vaccine strain would be “prudent,” the study said on Wednesday.

The Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and that of Moderna Inc, which use synthetic messenger RNA or mRNA technology, can be quickly adapted to address new mutations in the coronavirus, if necessary. The scientists suggested that the changes could be made in just six weeks.

AstraZeneca, Moderna and CureVac are also testing whether their respective shots will protect against rapidly spreading variants. They did not disclose the results of these tests.