Oxford scientists prepare vaccine versions to fight emerging viral variants – The Telegraph

(Reuters) – Scientists at Oxford are preparing to rapidly produce new versions of their vaccine to fight the more contagious emerging variants of COVID-19 found in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, the report reported on Wednesday. Telegraph.

The team behind the vaccine from Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc are undertaking feasibility studies to reconfigure the technology, the journal bit.ly/3o1DNRf said, citing confirmation from the University of Oxford.

Scientists were working to estimate how quickly they could reconfigure their ChAdOx vaccine platform, according to the report.

AstraZeneca returned to Oxford for comment. An Oxford spokesperson said the university is carefully evaluating the impact of the new variants on vaccine immunity and evaluating the processes necessary for the rapid development of tuned COVID-19 vaccines if necessary.

Separately, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that the national drug regulator would be ready and able to approve new versions of COVID-19 vaccines designed to counter new variants of the coronavirus that may appear.

Recent lab tests have indicated that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech SE is likely to work against the UK variant which is spreading around the world.

BioNTech has announced its intention to publish a more detailed analysis of the likely effect of its vaccine on the South African variant in a few days.

AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc and CureVac NV are also testing whether their respective plans will protect against rapidly spreading variants.