NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine was able to neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus that is rapidly spreading in Brazil, a lab study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine has been published.
Blood taken from people who had received the vaccine neutralized an engineered version of the virus containing the same mutations carried on the peak portion of the highly contagious P.1 variant first identified in Brazil, the study conducted by scientists of the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch found.
The scientists said the neutralizing power was roughly equivalent to the effect of the vaccine on an earlier, less contagious version of the virus from last year.
The spike, used by the virus to enter human cells, is the primary target of many COVID-19 vaccines.
In previously published studies, Pfizer had found that its vaccine neutralized other more contagious variants first identified in the UK and South Africa, although the South African variant may reduce the protective antibodies generated by the vaccine.
Pfizer has said it believes the current vaccine is very likely to still 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 modified to combat the variant to better understand the immune response.
Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot