More preliminary results in the lab suggest the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine will be effective against new more contagious strains of coronavirus first identified in South Africa and the UK.
As in previous studies, antibodies were slightly less effective against the virus with three major mutations in the variant identified in South Africa. However, Pfizer and BioNTech said, “The small differences in viral neutralization seen in these studies are unlikely to significantly reduce the vaccine effectiveness.”
The researchers have developed versions of the virus in the laboratory that carry some of the mutations in the variants. They tested them against blood taken from 20 people who received two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine as part of a clinical trial.
The laboratory study – conducted by researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch – did not test all mutations found in the variants, and researchers note that “clinical data are needed for definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of vaccines against variant viruses.”
The results were posted Wednesday on the preprint server bioRxiv and have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal.
Pfizer and BioNTech said on Wednesday that a new vaccine against the variants does not seem necessary. In a press release, they said they will continue to monitor the strains and conduct studies to check how effective the vaccine is in the real world. Pfizer said earlier this week that it “laid the groundwork” to create a vaccine booster that could respond to coronavirus variants if necessary.
Moderna, the maker of the other coronavirus vaccine approved in the United States, said this week that the Covid-19 vaccine produced antibodies that neutralized the coronavirus variants first found in the UK and South Africa, and it was intend to test a booster against the variants. “Out of an abundance of prudence.”
## Vaccines