Co-founder of BioNTech said it was ‘highly likely that its vaccine against the coronavirus worked against the mutated strain in Britain’.
A new strain of the COVID-19 virus which has emerged in the United Kingdom is a major concern for most nations around the world. With countries like India and United States getting ready to roll out COVID-19 vaccine in a matter of weeks, if not already done, the new strain has raised doubts of the effectiveness of the vaccine.
BioNTech said on Tuesday (December 22) that a vaccine against the new coronavirus mutation, which has been found in the United Kingdom and is said to be highly infectious, can be made in six weeks. Co-founder of BioNTech said it was ‘highly likely that its vaccine against the coronavirus worked against the mutated strain in Britain’.
Ugur Sahin said if necessary, the company can provide a coronavirus mutation beating vaccine in six weeks.
“Scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variant,” said Ugur Sahin.
He said the proteins on the UK variant are 99 per cent the same as on the prevailing strains.
“In principle, the beauty of the messenger technology is that we can directly start to engineer a vaccine which completely mimics this new mutation -- we could be able to provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks," Sahin added.
The coronavirus variant, detected mainly in London and the southeast of England in recent weeks, has sparked concern worldwide because of signs that it may spread more easily. While there is no indication it causes more serious illness, numerous countries in Europe and beyond have restricted travel from the UK as a result.
Earlier, BioNTech’s Ugur Sahin had said that he was confident a coronavirus vaccine co-developed by his company would be effective against a variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain.
Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday (December 21) due to fears about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages in the United Kingdom.
Sahin was speaking shortly after the European Union cleared regulatory hurdles for the vaccine, co-developed with Pfizer, to be rolled out after Christmas.
The new mutant of the coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, sending the world into panic, is more contagious but, despite the mutation, a coronavirus vaccine will be equally effective against it, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) DG Shekhar Mande said on Monday.
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 "BioNTech is ready for mutated COVID-19 virus as well.")
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