COVID-19: Pfizer-BioNTech say their vaccine effective against UK, South Africa variants

Pharmaceuticals Pfizer and BioNTech, on January 28, said that their COVID-19 vaccine was effective against variants that have emerged in Britain and South Africa. In a joint statement, the companies said that "small differences" detected in tests comparing the original virus and the recent versions "are unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine". Previously, Pfizer had said that it was developing a “booster shot” to tackle new variants, however, after the latest announcement experts have dismissed its requirement.

BNT162b2, the mRNA based COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer/ BioNTech was the first of its kind to be approved in the world with the UK granting it emergency approval on December 2. Since then, it had been granted approval in the US, Israel, across the European Union amongst other developed and developing countries across the world.

‘Real-world effectiveness’

Despite their latest announcement, Pfizer/BioNTech stressed that they would continue to monitor the effectiveness of their vaccines in real-time, including against the new mutations. The partnership further said that they would immediately respond if their vaccines fail against the SARS-CoV-2 mutations. "Pfizer and BioNTech believe that the flexibility of BioNTech's proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to develop new vaccine variants if required," they said.

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Earlier this month, British pharmaceutical company ConserV Bioscience Limited (CBL) claimed to have created a COVID-19 vaccine that will work against all kinds of mutations. According to Daily Mail, CBL said that it had created the vaccine that can allegedly work against all mutant strains, including the ones recently detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa. CBL has asserted that it will able to roll-out the vaccine in a year or so if trials are conducted quickly. 

According to the World Health Organisation, the UK coronavirus strain has been detected in at least 60 countries while that of South Africa detected in over 23 nations. While these both variants have left experts concerned,  Japan reported a third, previously unknown, virus strain. Earlier this month, South Africa reported a second mutation while Brazil became the first Latin American nation to report a new strain. 

Read: UK's Health Minister Warns That Vaccines May Work Less Well On Covid-19 Variants

Read: UK Coronavirus Strain Detected In 60 Countries, South African Variant In 23 Nations: WHO