(Reuters) – Oxford scientists are preparing to quickly produce new versions of their vaccine to combat emerging more contagious COVID-19 variants discovered in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
The Oxford vaccine newspaper and AstraZeneca Plc are conducting feasibility studies to reconfigure the technology, the newspaper bit.ly/3o1DNRf said, citing a confirmation from Oxford University.
The scientists were estimating how quickly they could reconfigure their ChAdOx vaccine platform, the report said.
AstraZeneca has postponed Oxford for comment. An Oxford spokesman said the university was thoroughly assessing the impact of new variants on vaccine immunity and evaluating the processes needed for the rapid development of custom COVID-19 vaccines should they be needed.
Separately, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that the country’s drug regulator will be ready to approve new versions of COVID-19 vaccines designed to counteract new variants of the coronavirus that can occur.
Recent laboratory tests have indicated that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE is likely to work against the UK variant worldwide.
BioNTech said it planned to publish a more detailed analysis of the likely effects of the vaccine on the South African variant within a few days.
AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc and CureVac NV are also testing whether their respective shots will protect against the rapidly spreading variants.
Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Edited by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot