NEW YORK (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE has managed to neutralize a new variant of the rapidly spreading coronavirus in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Blood taken from people who received the vaccine neutralized a technical version of the virus that contained the same mutations carried on the tip of the highly contagious variant P.1 first identified in Brazil, the study by scientists in companies and found medical branch of the University of Texas.
The scientists said that the ability to neutralize was roughly equivalent to the effect of the vaccine on an earlier less contagious version of the virus last year.
Peak, used by the virus to enter human cells, is the main target of many COVID-19 vaccines.
In previously published studies, Pfizer found that its vaccine neutralized other more contagious variants first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa, although the South African variant may reduce the protective antibodies triggered by the vaccine.
Pfizer said it believes its current vaccine is very likely to continue to protect against the South African variant. However, the doctor intends to test the third booster dose of the vaccine, as well as a reorganized version specifically to combat the variant, to better understand the immune response.
Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Berkrot