The COVID-19 vaccine developed jointly by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE will likely protect against the new, mutant variant of the coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom, a study has found.
The UK strain of the novel coronavirus has spread to almost 60 countries, the World Health Organization said on January 20. This includes India, where 141 people have tested positive for the new, mutant UK variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The result of a laboratory trial of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was released on January 20. The study, which remains to be peer reviewed, was published on preprint server BioRxiv, Bloomberg reported.
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The results of the study showed that the antibodies present in the blood of vaccinated persons were able to neutralise a version of the lab generated mutant coronavirus strain.
A previous study on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – conducted by the University of Texas Medical Branch – had focused only on one mutation of the coronavirus, but the new research has tested all 10 possible mutations of the pathogen. BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine heads to EU as effectiveness against new strain tested
The research team led by BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin has said the result of the study proves it is very unlikely that the UK variant viruses will be able to dodge the vaccine.
“Unlike for influenza vaccines, the reduction in neutralization that might indicate the need for a strain change has not been established for Covid-19 vaccines,” the research team said.
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