NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appears to be losing only a little effectiveness against a virus designed with three key mutations in the new coronavirus variant found in South Africa, according to a laboratory study performed by US Pharmacist.
The study by Pfizer and scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), which has not yet been peer-reviewed, showed a doubling of levels of antibody titers, indicating that the vaccine is likely it would be effective in neutralizing a virus. with the so-called E484K and N501Y mutations found in the South African variant.
The study here was done with blood drawn from people who had received the vaccine. Its findings are limited because it does not contemplate the complete set of mutations found in the new South African variant.
While these findings do not indicate the need for a new vaccine to address emerging variants, Pfizer and BioNTech are prepared to respond if a variant of SARS-CoV-2 shows evidence of evading immunity by the COVID- vaccine. 19, companies said. .
Scientists are currently crafting a virus with the full set of mutations and hope to get results in about two weeks, according to Pei-Yong Shi, study author and professor at UTMB.
The results are more encouraging than another study from Columbia University scientists not peer-reviewed, which used a slightly different method and showed that antibodies generated by the shots were significantly less effective against the South African variant.
One possible reason for the difference could be that Pfizer’s findings are based on a coronavirus designed and the Columbia study used a pseudovirus based on vesicular stomatitis virus, a different type of virus, Shi said. of the UTMB. He said he believes the finding in pseudovirus should be validated using the real virus.
The study also showed even better results against several key mutations in the highly transmissible UK variant to the virus. Shi said they were also working on a virus designed with the full set of mutations of this variant.
Reports by Michael Erman; Additional reports by Christine Soares and Rama Venkat; Edited by Sonya Hepinstall and Leslie Adler