The company BioNTech, responsible with Pfizer for the first vaccine authorized against Covid-19 in the world, says it is able to provide another "in six weeks" in case of a mutation of the virus, as happened in the United Kingdom.
"We are technically capable of delivering a new vaccine in six weeks," said scientist and entrepreneur Ugur Sahin, from the German laboratory BioNTech.
"In principle, the beauty of messenger RNA technology is that we can directly start designing a vaccine that completely mimics the new mutation," he added at a press conference in Mainz (western Germany) the day after the signal European authorities to distribute in the European Union the vaccine that the German laboratory developed with Pfizer.
BioNTech is confident that the coronavirus vaccine will work in the case of the newly detected UK variant, but stresses that further studies are needed.
The variant, detected mainly in London and south-east England in recent weeks, has raised concern around the world because of evidence that it could spread more easily.
While there is no indication that it causes more severe forms of the disease, several countries in Europe are restricting travel from the UK.
"We don't know, at the moment, whether our vaccine is also able to provide protection against this new variant," said Ugur Sahin, adding: "but, scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine can also handle the new ones. variants of the virus'.
Sahin said the proteins in the strain detected in the UK are 99% identical to those in the starter strain, and therefore BioNTech has "scientific confidence" that its vaccine will be effective.
"But we'll only know if we test and we'll need about two weeks from now to get the data," he said.
However, the head of BioNTech also considered that the probability that the vaccine they developed with Pfizer will work "is relatively high".
If the vaccine needs to be adjusted for the new variant, the company says it can do so in six weeks, although regulators may have to approve the changes before the vaccines are used.
BioNTech's vaccine, developed in conjunction with US drugmaker Pfizer, is authorized for use in more than 45 countries, including Great Britain, the United States and the EU.
Comments