NEW YORK (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE was able to quickly neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus spread in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Monday.
Blood taken from people who received the vaccine neutralized a designed version of the virus that contained the same mutations. It was carried out by scientists from the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch found.
The scientists said the neutralizing ability is roughly equal to the effect of the vaccine on a previous less contagious version of the virus from last year.
The peak, which is used by the virus to enter human cells, is the primary target of many COVID-19 vaccines.
In previously published studies, Pfizer found that the vaccine neutralized other more contagious variants first identified in the UK and South Africa, although the South African variant may reduce the protective antibodies elicited by the vaccine.
Pfizer said it believed the current vaccine was likely to protect against the South African variant. However, the drug manufacturer plans to test a third booster dose of their vaccine, as well as a version specifically tailored to combat the variant to better understand the immune response.
Reporting by Michael Erman; Edited by Bill Berkrot