FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is likely to protect against a more infectious variant of the virus found in the UK that has spread around the world, according to the results of other laboratory tests published on Wednesday.
The encouraging results from a blood test of study participants are based on broader tests than those released by the American doctor last week.
Last week, Pfizer said a similar laboratory study showed that the vaccine is effective against a key mutation, called N501Y, found in two new highly transmissible variants widespread in the UK and South Africa.
The latest study, posted on bioRxiv.org but not yet evaluated by colleagues, was performed on a synthetic virus with 10 mutations characteristic of the variant known as B117 identified in the United Kingdom.
Among the 11 authors of the study are Ugur Sahin and Oezlem Tuereci, co-founders of BioNTech. Sahin is the executive director, and his wife, Tuereci, is the medical director.
It offers additional hope, as a record number of daily deaths from COVID-19 are reported in the UK, which is believed to be driven by the more transmissible variant. It also means that vaccine development should not start again.
But the virus needs to be monitored continuously to see if the changes maintain vaccine protection, the study said.
For the test, blood samples taken from 16 vaccinated participants in previous clinical trials were exposed to a synthetic virus called pseudovirus that was designed to have the same surface proteins as B117, characterized by 10 distinctive mutations.
The antibodies in the blood of the volunteers who received the vaccine, known as Comirnaty or BNT162b2, neutralized the pseudovirus as effectively as the older version of coronavirus for which the product was originally designed.
Experts said the findings were reassuring and not surprising, and the results of similar studies on the South African variant will be closely monitored.
“This makes it very unlikely that the British version will escape the protection afforded by the vaccine,” said Jonathan Stoye, a specialist in virus science at the Francis Crick Institute in the UK. “It will be interesting to do the same experiments with the South African version.”
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.
People are pinning their hopes on vaccines to limit the coronavirus, first detected in downtown Wuhan in late 2019, as many countries impose tighter and longer blockages to try to bring the pandemic under control.
VARIANTS AND VACCINES
Scientists say the variants are more transmissible than previously dominant ones, but are not believed to cause more serious diseases.
“The South African strain has been detected in the UK – although currently in small numbers – but appears to be growing in recent weeks,” said Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the British University of East Anglia.
Variants with this mutation could reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, although most likely all current vaccines would still be extremely effective.
Experts have called for further testing to determine if the vaccines will protect people as the virus moves. COVID-19 has killed over 2 million people worldwide.
Preparing for potential changes to the COVID-19 vaccine strain would be “prudent,” the study said Wednesday.
The Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 and Moderna Inc. vaccines, which use both synthetic messenger RNA or mRNA technologies, can be rapidly adapted to address new coronavirus mutations if necessary. Scientists have suggested that the changes could be made in just six weeks.
AstraZeneca, Moderna and CureVac are also testing whether their photos will protect against fast-spreading variants. They did not publish the results of these tests.
Reporting by Ludwig Burger; additional reports by Kate Kelland in London; Edited by Josephine Mason and Nick Macfie in London