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- Volunteers were allowed to find out if they received placebo
- Volunteers who received placebo have the option to get vaccinated while they remain in the study
- BioNTech CEO Says Vaccine Should Cope With New Strain
The American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, owned by a Turkish couple, have planned to give volunteers who received a placebo in the coronavirus vaccine trial the option to receive a first dose of the antidote before March 1, 2021. , while they remain inside the studio.
Depending on the trial vaccine transition option, all participants 16 years of age or older have the option of finding out whether they received the placebo and patients, who learn they received placebo, have the option of receiving the investigational vaccine while they remain in the studio.
On their websites, the companies have argued that trial participants who received the placebo would have two doses of the vaccine reserved for them within the study.
“The study physician will follow the latest guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and their local health authorities to offer the vaccine transition option to participants on a prioritized basis,” the companies said.
Read more: China approves its first coronavirus vaccine
Vaccine supply
BioNTech is working hard with its partner Pfizer to boost production of its COVID-19 vaccine, its founders said, warning that there will be gaps in supply until other vaccines are implemented.
Owned by a Turkish immigrant in Germany, the startup has led the vaccine race, but its injection has been slow to reach the European Union due to relatively late approval from the bloc’s health regulator and the small size of the order placed by Brussels.
Delays in the deployment of homegrown vaccine have caused consternation in Germany, where some regions had to suspend vaccines within days of starting an inoculation campaign.
“Right now it doesn’t look good, a hole is popping because there is a lack of other approved vaccines and we have to fill the gap with our own vaccine,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told news Week Spiegel.
Also read: US falls short of target of vaccinating 20 million Americans by December 2020
New strain of highly infectious coronavirus
Sahin said the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine, which uses messenger RNA to instruct the human immune system to fight the coronavirus, should be able to cope with a new, more contagious variant first detected in Britain.
“We are testing whether our vaccine can also neutralize this variant and we will know more soon,” he said.
When asked about how to deal with a strong mutation, he said it would be possible to modify the vaccine as needed within six weeks, although these new treatments might require additional regulatory approvals.
Sahin also said that BioNTech would make its vaccine, which requires storage at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), easier to handle, adding that a next-generation vaccine could be ready by late summer.
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