NEW YORK (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE was able to neutralize a new variant of the rapidly spreading coronavirus in Brazil, according to a lab study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Blood drawn from people who had been given the vaccine neutralized a designed version of the virus that contained the same mutations carried in the tip portion of the highly contagious variant P.1 first identified in Brazil, the study by business scientists and It is the medical branch of the University of Texas.
The scientists said the neutralizing ability was roughly the effect of the vaccine on an earlier less contagious version of last year’s virus.
The ear, which the virus uses to enter human cells, is the main target of many COVID-19 vaccines.
In previously published studies, Pfizer had found that its vaccine neutralized other more contagious variants first identified in the UK and South Africa, although the South African variant may reduce the protective antibodies caused by the vaccine.
Pfizer has said it believes its current vaccine is likely to still protect against the South African variant. However, the pharmacist plans to test a third booster dose of his vaccine, as well as a re-equipped version specifically to combat the variant in order to better understand the immune response.
Reports by Michael Erman; Edited by Bill Berkrot