New data shows that the South African virus variant assumes the efficacy of the vaccine

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Data from clinical trials with two COVID-19 vaccines shows that a coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa reduces their ability to protect against the disease, underscoring the need to act so quickly potentially vaccinate large numbers of people, scientists said. .

The vaccines from Novavax Inc and Johnson & Johnson were hailed as important future weapons in reducing deaths and hospitalization in a pandemic that infected more than 101 million people and claimed more than 2 million lives worldwide.

But they were significantly less effective in preventing COVID-19 in subjects in South Africa, where the powerful new variant is widespread, compared to countries where this mutation is still rare, according to preliminary data released by the companies.

“It is clear that the mutants have a diminishing effect on the efficacy of the vaccines,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, in a briefing. “We can see that we are being challenged.”

Novavax reported midstage study results Thursday showing that the vaccine was generally 50% effective in preventing COVID-19 in people in South Africa.

That compared with late-stage results from the UK, where the vaccine was up to 89.3% effective in preventing COVID-19.

On Friday, J&J said a single injection of its coronavirus vaccine had a total effectiveness of 66% in a large-scale study on three continents.

But there were big differences per region. In the United States, where the South African variant was first reported this week, efficacy reached 72%, compared to only 57% in South Africa, where the new variant, known as B 1,351, reached 95% of the COVID. -19 cases. reported in the process.

Another highly transmissible variant, first discovered in the UK and now in more than half of the US states, has been less successful in circumventing vaccine efficacy than its South African counterpart.

However, the new findings raise questions about how highly effective vaccines from Pfizer Inc with partner BioNTech and Moderna Inc will fare against new variants. The two vaccines showed approximately 95% efficacy in studies conducted primarily in the United States before the new virus versions were identified in other countries.

“It’s another pandemic now,” says Dr. Dan Barouch, a researcher at Harvard University Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who contributed to the development of the J&J vaccine.

Barouch said there are now a wide variety of new variants in circulation, including in Brazil, South Africa, and even the United States, that are substantially resistant to vaccine-induced antibodies.

Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla said there was “a high probability” that emerging variants would eventually render the company’s vaccine ineffective.

“This is not the case yet … but I think it is very likely that it will one day,” Bourla said at the World Economic Forum. The medicine man is considering whether his vaccine should be modified to defend against the South African variant.

‘AVOID HOSPITALS FROM ENTERING THE CRISIS’

Experts said all four vaccines are still of great value in their ability to reduce severe COVID-19.

“The end game is to stop death, to keep hospitals from going into crisis – and all of these vaccines, even against the South African variety, seem to do that substantially,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

For example, J & J’s vaccine was 89% effective in preventing serious illness in South Africa.

Dr. Paul Stoffels, J & J’s Chief Scientific Officer, said he suspects that some type of immune system response called a T-cell response plays a protective role and may help prevent serious illness.

“We knew that to some extent, but it is also better and very confirming that we can now see that in the clinic,” said Stoffels in an interview.

Nonetheless, Fauci said the reduced efficacy underscores the need to monitor variants closely and speed up vaccination efforts before new, and even more dangerous, mutations emerge.

“The best way to prevent further evolution of a virus is to prevent it from multiplying,” said Fauci, “and you do that by vaccinating people as soon as possible.”