[ad_1]
Although a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus has been discovered in the UK, that does not mean it is resistant to the vaccine. The German pharmaceutical BioNTech, which together with Pfizer developed the first doses approved worldwide, assures that “scientifically, it is highly probable that the immune response of this vaccine can also address the new variant of the virus.”
Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, said more studies are needed to make sure the current vaccine works against the new strain. However, if the vaccine were changed, the company could do it in about six weeks, he guaranteed. “We are scientifically confident that the vaccine should protect, but we will only know for sure after a few experiments and we will need about two weeks from now to get the data, which of course we will publish as soon as possible,” he said. According to the scientist, the proteins of the British variant are 99% equal to those of the predominant strains, so “we think there is no reason to be scared or worried.”
“In principle, the beauty of the technology used is that we can start directly to design a vaccine that completely mimics this new mutation and, technically, we can deliver a new vaccine in six weeks,” he said.
