The joint makers of the widely used Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are assessing how effective their jab is against the new Covid-19 variant recently discovered in South Africa, according to the Reuters news agency.
“We understand the concern of experts and have immediately initiated investigations on variant B.1.1.529,” Reuters quotes BioNTech as saying.
The German company will have more insight in two weeks time at the latest, when it receives further data from laboratory tests, according to Reuters.
The firm said the variant “may require an adjustment of our vaccine” if it spreads globally and is found to be capable of escaping immunity.
On assessment of the B.1.1.529 variant, scientists have found it to be the most heavily mutated version of Covid-19 discovered so far.
World leaders have reacted with concern, with several limiting travel from the southern African region.
How has the new variant mutated?
The new variant of coronavirus has more than 50 mutations overall.
Some 32 of those are on the spike protein – that’s the key the virus uses to unlock the doorway into our body’s cells, and the target of most vaccines.
Zooming in even further to the part of the virus that makes first contact with our body’s cells – called the receptor binding domain – scientists found that has 10 mutations.
That compares to just two for the Delta variant that swept the world.
A lot of mutation doesn’t automatically mean: bad.
It’s important to know what those mutations are actually doing, but the concern is this virus is now radically different to the original that emerged in Wuhan, China, on which the vaccines are based.
