Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appears effective against mutation in new strains

Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appears to work against a key mutation in new, highly transmissible variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a lab study by the US drug maker.

The not-yet-peer-reviewed study from Pfizer and scientists in the University of Texas medical branch indicated that the vaccine was effective in neutralizing the virus with the so-called N501Y mutation in the spike protein.

The mutation could be responsible for greater transmissibility and there had been fears that it could also cause the virus to escape the antibody neutralization caused by the vaccine, said Phil Dormitzer, one of Pfizer’s top scientists. on viral vaccines.

The study was carried out on blood taken from people who had received the vaccine. His findings are limited because he does not look at the full set of mutations found in either of the newer variants of the rapidly spreading virus.

Dormitzer said it was encouraging that the vaccine appears to be effective against the mutation, as well as against 15 other mutations the company has already tested against.

“So we tested 16 different mutations, and none of them really had a significant impact. That’s the good news,” he said. “That doesn’t mean the 17th won’t be.”

Dormitzer noted that another mutation found in the South African variant, called the E484K mutation, is also of concern.

Researchers plan to run similar tests to see if the vaccine is effective against other mutations found in the UK and South Africa and hope to have more data within a few weeks.

Scientists have expressed concern that the vaccines being deployed may not be able to protect against the newer variants, especially the one that has emerged in South Africa.

Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said this week that while the two variants have new features in common, the one found in South Africa “has a number of additional mutations” that included alterations larger areas of the peak. protein.

The Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use synthetic messenger RNA technology, can be quickly modified to respond to new mutations in a virus if necessary. Scientists have suggested that the changes could be made in as little as six weeks.