New York (SunstarTV Bureau): laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the corona virus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on February 17.
The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, although the results indicated a reduction in neutralization of virus with all the South African variant spike glycoprotein mutations, the vaccine was still able to neutralize the virus.
This finding is consistent with recent reports of the neutralization of variant SARS-CoV-2 or corresponding pseudo viruses by convalescent or post-immunization sera, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) investigated the full set of South African variant spike mutations.
Three genetically engineered recombinant viruses were produced. One virus had the full set of spike glycoprotein mutations found in the South African variant and the other two had subsets of these mutations.
The viruses were tested against a panel of sera from 15 participants in the previously reported Phase 3 trial who had been immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Pfizer-BioNTech said they are taking the necessary steps, making the right investments, and engaging in the appropriate conversations with regulators to be in a position to develop and seek authorization for an updated mRNA vaccine or booster once a strain that significantly reduces the protection from the vaccine is identified, the company said.
Pfizer-BioNTech is currently evaluating neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 with the Brazilian strain spike mutations, as well as mutations from other emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, and they continue to conduct studies to monitor the vaccine’s real-world effectiveness.
The pharmaceutical companies believe that the flexibility of BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to develop new vaccine variants, if required.
