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SEOUL, Dec.27 (ANN): The variants of the coronavirus spreading from the United Kingdom and South Africa are new obstacles for companies struggling to produce viable treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pending question is: Are the treatments and vaccines developed so far still effective against variants of the coronavirus?
According to the World Health Organization, the UK variant has a genetic mutation in the S gene, which makes its binding affinity to human receptor cells more powerful. Simply put, this makes the virus more contagious.
UK health authorities have said that transmissibility has increased by 70 percent.
However, whether the virus became more lethal is something that authorities are still learning about.
“We cannot say anything definitively about the Celltrion treatment, whether we need more data to prove its efficacy or not, this is not something we can comment on at this time with the paucity of information we have,” a representative from the Ministry of Health he told The Korea Herald.
“We believe that the effects of the variants on treatments and vaccine development are minimal,” the official said.
Celltrion’s antibody treatment, intended to alleviate symptoms in mildly affected COVID-19 patients to deter their escalation to severe cases, will be applied for conditional use of the drug in Korea before the end of the year.
Celltrion treatment will become the local treatment option available in the country at the fastest rate.
The Celltrion antibody targets the S2 gene of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is an area of minimal mutation and therefore potent against variants, according to Celltrion President Seo Jung-jin’s online press conference. in July.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that it will speed up the process of selecting vaccines and treatments. For treatments, the Ministry will radically shorten the evaluation period from more than 180 days to less than 40 days. For vaccines, the Ministry plans to accelerate the review period from two to three months to less than 20 days.
According to the Ministry of Drugs, 15 COVID-19 treatments are being investigated in Korea, including researching new drugs and repurposing existing drugs. Five national vaccine projects are being sought, albeit in the first phase 1 and phase 1/2 trials.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the companies behind vaccines already being administered in some major countries, are of the opinion that their vaccines will remain effective despite the bifurcation in events.
Both companies are testing their vaccines on the new variant and will be able to offer data-driven analysis on the subject in a few weeks.
According to news reports, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin is said to have said: “Scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response of this vaccine can also cope with new variants of the virus.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is approved for emergency use in the US, UK, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Kuwait, and Singapore and for conditional use in the European Union and Switzerland.
Moderna vaccine is approved for emergency use in the US.
Since December 14, the UK has faced a SARS-CoV-2 virus genetic mutation as the cause of a spike in infection.
According to the BBC, this variant had traveled from the UK to Japan, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia as of Sunday.
In Korea, a man in his 80s returned from the UK on December 13 and was posthumously declared a patient with COVID-19 on Sunday. It is still unknown if he was infected with the new variant.
Korea has banned flights from the UK between December 23 and December 31. – The Korea Herald / Asia News Network
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