The CEO of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech said he was confident that the company’s Covid vaccine, developed in collaboration with Pfizer, would be effective against the highly contagious variants of the virus found in the UK and South -Africa was discovered.
“We are confident that, based on the mechanism of our vaccine, we believe that the immune response induced by our vaccine can also handle (a) mutated virus,” said Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, told Meg Tirrell, CNBC, on Monday.
“Last week we reported another mutation that occurs in the British variant and also in the South African variant, and this mutation is considered important because it can structurally change the protein. But it seems that the immune response against our vaccine it also neutralize. mutation. “
His comments refer to research published on Thursday which shows that Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appears to be effective against a major mutation in the more contagious variants of the virus discovered in the UK and South Africa. .
The study, which was conducted by the US pharmaceutical Pfizer and has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggested that the vaccine works to neutralize the so-called N501Y mutation. This mutation has been reported in the coronavirus variants discovered in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
The variants, which originated separately, both share a genetic mutation of the so-called ear protein, which the virus uses to gain access to cells in the body.
Doctors tentatively welcomed the findings of the study last week, but noted that it is important to note that the research focused only on the N501Y mutation that occurs in both new variants.
According to Sahin of BioNTech, the company will be able to offer more data in the coming days to look at the complete set of mutations.
New vaccine can be ready within six weeks
Like that of Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine uses messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology. In practice, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that it “teaches our cells how to make a protein – or even just a piece of protein – that triggers an immune response in our bodies.”
The resulting immune response produces antibodies that help protect people from being infected with the virus.
Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of Biontech, stands on the premises of the company. Biontech is a biotechnology company that does research on vaccines against the coronavirus, among other things. (Photo by Andreas Arnold / picture alliance via Getty Images)
Andreas Arnold | image alliance via Getty Images
Asked how fast BioNTech could turn out if the existing Covid vaccine proved ineffective against new variants, Sahin said that an ‘important advantage’ of the mRNA technology was that it enabled the company to make the vaccine relatively quickly To adapt. “
“We can change the order of the vaccine within a few days and we can in principle deliver a new vaccine within six weeks. It is technically possible, and if necessary, we will work for it,” he said. would also require discussions with regulatory authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration.
“We are therefore confident that the technology with which we can respond very quickly to a mutation or a virus variant that has different problems,” Sahin said.
Public health experts have expressed concern that the new mutant strains could pose a threat to vaccination efforts. Over the past few weeks, optimism about the massive deployment of Covid vaccines has been tempered by the emerging virus problem worldwide.
To date, more than 90.3 million people have contracted the coronavirus worldwide, with 1.93 million deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.