Drug makers including BioNTech and Moderna are scrambling to test their COVID-19 vaccines against the new fast-spreading variant of the virus that is raging in Britain, the latest challenge in the breakneck race to curb the pandemic.
But there is some promising news: Ugur Sahin, chief executive of Germany’s BioNTech, said overnight it was “highly likely” that its vaccine developed in partnership with Pfizer will provide an immune response against the new variant.
BioNTech said it was highly likely its vaccine, developed with partner Pfizer, would provide protection against the new virus strain.Credit:AP
“The vaccine contains more than 1270 amino acids, and only 9 of them are changed (in the mutant virus). That means that 99 per cent of the protein is still the same,” he said.
Tests are ongoing and, even if Sahin’s theory proves incorrect, he said scientists could engineer a vaccine which completely mimics the new mutation within six weeks.
