ZURICH / FRANKFURT: Drug manufacturers, including BioNTech and Moderna, are trying to test their COVID-19 vaccines against the new fast-spreading variant of the virus raging in Britain, the latest challenge in the breakneck race to curb the pandemic.
Ugur Sahin, CEO of Germany’s BioNTech, which, along with partner Pfizer, took less than a year to get a vaccine approved, said on Tuesday that he needs two more weeks to know if his injection contains the mutant variant of the virus. can stop.
Moderna expects immunity from its vaccine to protect against the variant and is conducting more tests in the coming weeks to confirm this, the company said in a statement to CNN. Moderna did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The mutation known as the B.1.1.7 lineage can be up to 70% more contagious and more of a problem for children. It has created chaos in Britain, sparking a wave of travel bans disrupting trade with Europe and threatening to further isolate the island country.
Sahin said the virus contains nine mutations.
While he doesn’t believe they are significant enough to circumvent the protections afforded by BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, which was approved by the European Union on Monday, he said about 14 more days of study and data collection are needed before a definitive answer will be given.
“From a scientific point of view, it is very likely that the immune response provided by this vaccine could also target this virus variant,” he said in a call to reporters.
“The vaccine contains more than 1,270 amino acids and only 9 have been changed (in the mutated virus). That means that 99% of the protein is still the same.”
Germany’s CureVac said it does not expect the variant to affect the efficacy of its experimental recording, which is based on the same messenger RNA (mRNA) technology used by Pfizer-BioNTech.
It began late-stage clinical trials of its vaccine candidate last week and is constantly reviewing variants, which the company said are common as viruses spread.
While there are multiple mutations, Sahin of BioNTech said, most sites on the virus recognized by the body’s T cell response are unaltered, and multiple antibody binding sites are also conserved.
MRNA ADVANTAGE
In the event that the variant presents vaccine developers with an unexpected challenge, an advantage of mRNA is that scientists can quickly restructure genetic material in the uptake to match that of the mutated protein, while modifying traditional vaccines would require additional steps.
“Basically, the great thing about mRNA technology is that we can immediately start developing a vaccine that fully mimics this new mutation,” said Sahin.
“We could technically be able to deliver a new vaccine within six weeks. Of course, this isn’t just a technical question. We have to figure out how regulators … would see that.”
Britain’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Saturday that vaccines appeared to be enough to generate an immune response to the variant of the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday it will convene a meeting of members to discuss strategies to counter the mutation.
Ugur Sahin, CEO of Germany’s BioNTech, which, along with partner Pfizer, took less than a year to get a vaccine approved, said on Tuesday that he needs two more weeks to know if his injection contains the mutant variant of the virus. can stop.
Moderna expects immunity from its vaccine to protect against the variant and is conducting more tests in the coming weeks to confirm this, the company said in a statement to CNN. Moderna did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The mutation known as the B.1.1.7 lineage can be up to 70% more contagious and more of a problem for children. It has created chaos in Britain, sparking a wave of travel bans disrupting trade with Europe and threatening to further isolate the island country.
Sahin said the virus contains nine mutations.
While he doesn’t believe they are significant enough to circumvent the protections afforded by BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, which was approved by the European Union on Monday, he said about 14 more days of study and data collection are needed before a definitive answer will be given.
“From a scientific point of view, it is very likely that the immune response provided by this vaccine could also target this virus variant,” he said in a call to reporters.
“The vaccine contains more than 1,270 amino acids and only 9 have been changed (in the mutated virus). That means that 99% of the protein is still the same.”
Germany’s CureVac said it does not expect the variant to affect the efficacy of its experimental recording, which is based on the same messenger RNA (mRNA) technology used by Pfizer-BioNTech.
It began late-stage clinical trials of its vaccine candidate last week and is constantly reviewing variants, which the company said are common as viruses spread.
While there are multiple mutations, Sahin of BioNTech said, most sites on the virus recognized by the body’s T cell response are unaltered, and multiple antibody binding sites are also conserved.
MRNA ADVANTAGE
In the event that the variant presents vaccine developers with an unexpected challenge, an advantage of mRNA is that scientists can quickly restructure genetic material in the uptake to match that of the mutated protein, while modifying traditional vaccines would require additional steps.
“Basically, the great thing about mRNA technology is that we can immediately start developing a vaccine that fully mimics this new mutation,” said Sahin.
“We could technically be able to deliver a new vaccine within six weeks. Of course, this isn’t just a technical question. We have to figure out how regulators … would see that.”
Britain’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Saturday that vaccines appeared to be enough to generate an immune response to the variant of the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday it will convene a meeting of members to discuss strategies to counter the mutation.