(Reuters) – Oxford scientists are preparing to quickly produce new versions of the vaccine to combat the more contagious COVID-19 variants found in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
The team behind the Oxford vaccine and AstraZeneca Plc are undertaking feasibility studies to reconfigure the technology, the newspaper bit.ly/3o1DNRf said, citing confirmation from Oxford University.
The scientists were working to estimate how quickly they could reconfigure their ChAdOx vaccine platform, the report said.
AstraZeneca has been postponed to Oxford for comment. An Oxford spokesman said the university is carefully assessing the impact of the new variants on vaccine immunity and assessing the processes needed for the rapid development of COVID-19-adjusted vaccines, if necessary.
Separately, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that the national drug regulator will be ready and able to approve new versions of COVID-19 vaccines designed to counter new variants of the coronavirus that may appear.
Recent laboratory tests have indicated that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE is likely to act against the worldwide British variant.
BioNTech has stated that it intends 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 photos will protect against fast-spreading variants.
Report by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot