Pfizer vaccine appears effective against variant coronavirus found in Britain – study

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech may protect against a more infectious variant of the virus discovered in Britain that has spread around the world, results from other lab tests show published Wednesday.

The encouraging results of a blood test of trial participants are based on more extensive analysis than those released by the US drug maker last week.

Last week, Pfizer said a similar lab study showed the vaccine to be effective against a key mutation, called N501Y, found in two new, highly transmissible variants spreading across Britain and South Africa.

The latest study, published on bioRxiv.org but not yet peer reviewed, was conducted on a synthetic virus with 10 characteristic mutations of the variant known as B117 identified in Britain.

Among the 11 study authors are Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci, co-founders of BioNTech. Sahin is managing director and his wife Tuereci is chief medical officer.

This gives additional hope, as a record number of daily deaths from COVID-19 are reported in Britain, which is believed to be driven by the most transmissible variant. It also means that vaccine development would not have to start again at this time.

But the virus needs to be constantly monitored to verify that changes maintain vaccine protection, the study said.

For the test, blood samples taken from 16 participants vaccinated in previous clinical trials were exposed to a synthetic virus called pseudovirus which was designed to have the same surface proteins as B117, characterized by 10 characteristic mutations.

Antibodies in the blood of volunteers who received the vaccine, known as Comirnaty, or BNT162b2, neutralized the pseudovirus as effectively as the older version of the coronavirus the product was originally designed for.

Experts said the results were reassuring and not surprising and that the results of similar studies on the South African variant would be carefully monitored.

“This makes it very unlikely that the British variant will escape the protection offered by the vaccine,” said Jonathan Stoye, virus science specialist at the British Francis Crick Institute. “It will be interesting to carry out the same experiments with the South African variant.”

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.

The world is putting its hopes in vaccines to curb the coronavirus, first detected in the city of Wuhan, central China, in late 2019, as many countries impose tighter and longer lockdowns in an attempt to bring the pandemic under control.

VARIANTS AND VACCINES

Scientists say the variants are more transmissible than the previously dominant variants, but they are not believed to cause more serious illness.

“The South African strain has been detected in the UK – albeit currently in small numbers – but appears to be increasing in recent weeks,” said Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the British University of East Anglia.

“Variants with this mutation could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, although all current vaccines are most likely still very effective.”

Experts have called for further testing to determine whether vaccines will protect people when the virus mutates. COVID-19 has killed more than 2 million people around the world.

Preparing for potential changes to the COVID-19 vaccine strain would be “cautious,” the study said Wednesday.

The Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and that of Moderna Inc, both of which use synthetic messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology can be quickly adapted to treat new mutations in the coronavirus if needed. Scientists have suggested that the changes could be made in as little as six weeks.

AstraZeneca, Moderna, and CureVac are also testing whether their respective shots will protect against the fast-release variants. They have not published the results of these tests.