COVID-19: Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Effective Against UK, S. Africa Variants

On Thursday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that covid-19 vaccine is effective against the Covid-19 variants that have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Meanwhile, the two companies said these preliminary findings do not indicate the need for a new vaccine to address the emerging variants, according to news reportes.

Also, they reported that are prepared to respond if a new strain is shown to be able to evade the immunity of the vaccine, adding that they can produce updates to their jab if needed.

The statement comes after US biotech firm Moderna this week announced that its coronavirus vaccine also appears to work against the new and more infectious variants of Covid-19 found in the UK and South Africa.

Moreover, an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study on India-made Covaxin shows a comparable neutralisation activity of the vaccinated inpiduals against the new UK-variant strain.

The ICMR's National Institute of Virology scientist performed the plaque reduction neutralisation test using sera collected from the 26 recipients of Bharat Biotech's coronavirus vaccine (Covaxin) against UK mutant virus, according to bloomberg report.

"A comparable neutralization activity of the vaccinated inpiduals sera showed against UK-variant and the heterologous strain with similar efficiency dispel the uncertainty of possible neutralization escape, stated document appeared in bioRxiv in a pre-print version.