Virus variants: BioNTech says no vaccine modifications needed for now
BERLINBioNTech said yesterday the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Pfizer does not require any modifications at the moment to protect against variants of the virus.
"To date, there is no evidence that an adaptation of BioNTech's current Covid-19 vaccine against key identified emerging variants is necessary," the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, in preparations for a need at some point to make tweaks to its current vaccine, the company said it began tests in March on a "modified, variant-specific version" of its jabs.
"The aim of this study is to explore the regulatory pathway that BioNTech and Pfizer would pursue if Sars-CoV-2 were to change enough to require an updated vaccine," it said.
An assessment is also ongoing on the impact of a possible third dose in prolonging immunity and in protecting against variants.
BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin had said last month that the vaccine works against the variant from India.
The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine was the first to win authorisation in the West and has since been deployed in countries worldwide. It is now supplying more than 90 countries and is expecting to ramp up its production to up to three billion doses by the year end, from 2.5 billion doses expected previously.
Pfizer last week said it was targeting production of as much as four billion doses of the shot next year, mostly for low- and middle-income countries. - AFP, REUTERS
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