BioNTech says – COVID vaccine it has developed with Pfizer likely to be effective against the Indian variant
BioNTech SE said that the covid19 vaccine it developed with Pfizer should be roughly as effective against the new Coronavirus variant first detected in India as it has been shown to be against the South African variant.
The company said in a statement Chief Executive Ugur Sahin felt encouraged by recent findings in a scientific paper based on blood analysis of vaccinated individuals, which showed that the antibodies elicited by the vaccine were able to neutralise the Indian variant.
Earlier, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for Europe said the jabs being used on the continent – including the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – appeared able to protect against the current variants in circulation.
The COVID-19 variant first identified in India has been classified as a “variant of concern” by Britain and the World Health Organization, meaning there is some evidence that it spreads more easily between people, causes more severe disease, or might be less responsive to treatments and vaccines.
To date, there have been more than 2,300 cases identified in Britain. Figures released by Public Health England show cases of the variant first detected in India have tripled in the past week and experts say it’s on track to become the most dominant COVID-19 variant in the country.
