Pfizer and BioNTech prove their COVID vaccine works on new mutations

[Chris Smith]

• Pfizer and BioNTech announced they completed testing that shows the key mutation present on the UK and South African coronavirus strains would not create resistance to the vaccine.
• Researchers tested sera containing antibodies from 20 volunteers who received the vaccine during the Phase 3 trial and found that the coronavirus-specific proteins neutralized the key mutation.
• The two companies said that more research would be needed to observe the vaccine's effectiveness against the new strains and added that the mRNA vaccine could be adjusted to block mutations that could evade antibodies.

UK and South African officials confirmed a few weeks before Christmas that new coronavirus mutations were ravaging their respective countries. The UK prime minister canceled Christmas and announced stricter measures than the recent soft lockdown, saying the B.1.1.7 strain was highly infectious, albeit not more deadly than its progenitors. The 501.V2 strain in South Africa was also becoming dominant in the region, with some health officials saying that they observed more severe COVID-19 cases in younger people.

At the same time, officials said they expected the current vaccines, which were already rolling out in several markets, would work against B.1.1.7. In the weeks that followed, we learned that experts were more worried than the South African strain, thinking that 501.V2 could evade antibody drugs and vaccines.

Pfizer and BioNTech, the first vaccine partnership in Western markets to clear Phase 3 trials, just released a study that shows the drug is effective against a key mutation present in both the British and African strains. That’s an early indication that the vaccine will also block severe COVID-19 following infection with one of the two mutations, although more research will be required.

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Pfizer and BioNTech prove their COVID vaccine works on new mutations originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 8 Jan 2021 at 10:18:29 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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