Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Being Tested for Protection Against Coronavirus Mutation and Asymptomatic Transmission

Pfizer Inc. (New York, NY, USA) and Biopharmaceutical New Technologies (BioNTech Mainz, Germany) are conducting tests to examine if their COVID-19 vaccine would be effective against the newly-discovered variant of the coronavirus circulating in the UK.

BioNTech’s Chief Executive Ugur Sahin has said that the company is testing whether the COVID-19 vaccine would provide protection against the mutated, fast-spreading variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and expects results from the studies in the next two weeks. The company is also expecting results from its study to examine whether its COVID-19 vaccine can prevent asymptomatic transmission. By the end of January or February 2021, BioNTech will be able to share details about whether its COVID-19 vaccine can prevent asymptomatic infection. According to Sahin, the proteins on the UK variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are 99% similar to those on the prevailing strains, thus increasing the likelihood of the COVID-19 vaccine working on the new strain as well.

Pfizer and BioNTech expressed confidence that the new mRNA-based vaccine technology was suitable for protecting against rapidly mutating viruses. “One of the reasons Pfizer and BioNTech chose to utilize a mRNA platform is because of the potential for the flexibility of the technology in comparison to traditional vaccine technologies,” including the ability to change the RNA sequence in the vaccine, should a strain emerge that’s not covered by the current shot,” Pfizer added.

Sahin also assured that the mRNA-based vaccine technology would allow the company to come up with a COVID-19 vaccine to combat the new strain of coronavirus in six weeks. "In principle the beauty of the messenger technology is that we can directly start to engineer a vaccine which completely mimics this new mutation - we could be able to provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks," added Sahin, according to news agency AFP.

Related Links:
Pfizer Inc.
Biopharmaceutical New Technologies