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Biontech boss Ugur Sahin is confident that his company’s corona vaccine will also work against the new mutation of the virus that has emerged in Britain. From a scientific point of view, the probability of this happening is high, he said. “We have already tested the vaccine against 20 other virus variants with other mutations. The immune response produced by our vaccine has always inactivated all forms of the virus.”
The virus has now mutated a bit stronger, Sahin said. “Now we have to test it experimentally. It will take about two weeks. But we are confident that the mechanism of action will not be significantly affected.”
“Multiple Immune Responses
The antigen that the Mainz-based company and its US partner Pfizer use for the vaccine consists of more than 1,270 amino acids, according to Sahin. Nine of them have now mutated, so not even one percent. “Our vaccine sees all the protein and elicits multiple immune responses. This gives us so many docking points that it is difficult to escape the virus. But that does not mean that the new variant is harmless.” The Biontech vaccine based on the mRNA of the messenger molecule can, in principle, be rapidly adapted to new variants.
He called the EU approval for the Biontech vaccine, which took place on Monday, “historically by far the fastest drug approval.” Biontech not only had to answer questions from EU authorities, but also many questions from individual countries. “It made the process more arduous, but it was only part of the correct care of the procedures in the EU step by step.”
According to him, neither he nor his wife, Biontech co-founder and medical director Özlem Türeci, have so far been vaccinated with their company’s active ingredient. “But we would like that as soon as we have a proper basis for it,” he said. “It is important to us that we provide our production employees with the correct doses of vaccine.” The objective is to guarantee the uninterrupted manufacture of vaccines in the Biontech production network for the next twelve months. “Therefore, we are considering using a small lot that is independent of the EU quota for this purpose.”
He rated the conditional approval of the Biontech vaccine in the EU as “excellent”. He added: “The fact that the EU is now giving us the opportunity to provide people with our Covid-19 vaccine makes us easier and happier. We have seen in many places the desire for people to want a vaccine.” (apa)
