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Moderna says its shot is 90% efficient 6 months after second dose

Moderna asks FDA to authorize 5 additional doses per Covid vaccine vial to speed distribution, source tells CNBC

A healthcare worker holds a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination facility operated by SOMOS Community Care during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in New York on January 29, 2021.

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Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective against Covid and more than 95% effective against serious diseases up to six months after the second dose, the company said Tuesday, referring to updated data from its clinical Phase 3 study.

The update brings Moderna one step closer to filing its application for full US approval for its vaccine. Full approval requires a more rigorous review process to show that the shot is safe and effective for its intended use. With full approval, Moderna can begin marketing the recordings directly to consumers and selling them to individuals and private companies in the United States

The new data included Covid-19 cases through April 9 and assessed over 900 cases, including more than 100 serious cases. The vaccine is currently approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration for those aged 18 and over. The authority can revoke the emergency permit (EUA) at any time. Moderna only submitted safety data to the EEA for two months. The FDA typically takes six months for full approval.

The company said its results are preliminary. Moderna announced that updated data on effectiveness against asymptomatic infections and antibody persistence will be released later this year.

The new data comes from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that showed that antibodies induced by the Moderna vaccine were still present six months after the second dose. It also comes after Pfizer said earlier this month that its vaccine, which uses technology similar to Moderna’s, was also shown to be highly effective six months after the second dose.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist who served on various drug data and safety monitoring boards, described Moderna’s update as “amazing news” and is pleased to hear that both mRNA vaccines are highly effective after six months.

“I think it’s fair to estimate that both will have decent effectiveness over many months,” he said.

Moderna is still evaluating its vaccine in people aged 17 and younger.

The company announced Tuesday that its study testing the vaccine in adolescents ages 12 to 17 is now fully enrolled and has approximately 3,000 participants in the United States

Participants are currently enrolling in his study, which is testing the vaccine in children aged 6 months to 11 years. It is expected that 6,750 healthy pediatric participants will be enrolled in the US and Canada. As in Pfizer’s study, children first receive a low dose of the vaccine before gradually moving on to higher doses.

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Pfizer says shot is 100% efficient in children ages 12 to 15

Pfizer says shot is 100% effective in kids ages 12 to 15

A nurse, Cindy Mendez, wearing a protective mask, holds a syringe containing a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic at NYC Health + Hospitals Harlem Hospital in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. New York, February 25, 2021.

Jeenah Moon | Reuters

Pfizer said on Wednesday that its Covid-19 vaccine was 100% effective in a study in adolescents ages 12-15.

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said the company hoped to submit the new data on the vaccine, which was being developed in partnership with German drug maker BioNTech, “as soon as possible” to the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies that children in the age group can get vaccinated before the next school year.

“We share the urgency to expand our vaccine approval to younger populations and are encouraged by clinical trial data from adolescents 12-15 years of age,” Bourla said in a press release.

The study enrolled 2,260 participants in the United States. 18 confirmed Covid-19 infections were observed in the placebo group and no confirmed infections were observed in the group that received the vaccine, the company said. This resulted in a vaccine effectiveness of 100%. The shot is also well tolerated, with side effects generally the same as in adults.

The company also said the vaccine produced a “robust” antibody response in children that outperformed that in a previous study of 16-25 year olds.

Vaccinating children is critical to ending the pandemic, say public health officials and infectious disease experts. The nation is unlikely to achieve herd immunity – if enough people in a given community have antibodies to a given disease – until children can be vaccinated, experts say.

According to the government, children make up around 20% of the US population. According to experts, between 70% and 85% of the US population must be vaccinated against Covid to achieve herd immunity and some adults may refuse to get the shots.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, said he expected it would take the U.S. agency about a month to review the new data. If the FDA process goes well, the vaccine could be available to children between the ages of 12 and 15 by the fall, he told CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist who served on various data and security monitoring bodies, described the results as “wonderful news”. This is a “big step forward” in protecting more people from the virus and making schools safer for children.

“We are talking about improving the safety of youth activities such as youth sports and art, as well as after-school activities for youth,” he said.

Pfizer’s vaccine has already been approved for use in the United States in people aged 16 and over. Clinical studies testing the vaccine in children whose immune systems may react differently than adults had yet to be completed.

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking to a House committee earlier this month, said the U.S. could vaccinate older children against Covid-19 starting this fall, while elementary school-age children may get their shots early next year.

Moderna, which also has a US-approved vaccine, announced on March 16 that it has started testing its shot in children under the age of 12. Moderna started a study in December testing children ages 12-17.

Johnson & Johnson plans to test its single-shot vaccine in infants and even newborns after it was first tested in older children, according to the New York Times.

Pfizer announced last week that it had started a clinical trial testing its Covid-19 vaccine in healthy children aged 6 months to 11 years.

In the first phase of this study, the company will determine the preferred dosage level for three age groups – between 6 months and 2 years, 2 and 5 years, and between 5 and 11 years. The children will initially receive a dose of 10 micrograms of the vaccine before gradually moving to higher doses, according to the company. Participants also have the option of ingesting 3 micrograms doses.

Pfizer said Wednesday it plans to apply to the FDA for an amendment to its current emergency approval to include adolescents ages 12-15. All participants in the study will be monitored for two more years after their second dose, the company said.

Pfizer and BioNTech plan to submit the data for scientific review.

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CDC examine reveals single dose of Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccines was 80% efficient

CDC changes Covid vaccine guidance to OK mixing Pfizer and Moderna shots

According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of vaccinated health care workers, a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna was 80% effective in preventing coronavirus infections.

The effectiveness of the partial immunization was noted two weeks after the first dose, according to the CDC, which studied nearly 4,000 health care workers, first responders and frontline workers between December 14 and March 13, according to other key study staff, which began on Monday had no prior laboratory documentation of the Covid-19 infection.

Two doses are better than one, federal health officials said, adding that the vaccines’ effectiveness rose to 90% two weeks after the second dose.

“These results show that approved mRNA-COVID-19 vaccines in adults of working age effectively prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection under real conditions, regardless of symptom status,” wrote the US agency in the study. “The COVID-19 vaccination is recommended to all entitled persons.”

The new CDC results should back up arguments by some health experts and health officials that the US should give Americans only one dose of vaccines as a priority before moving on to a second dose, accelerating the pace of vaccination across the country.

The CDC results were released just minutes before the press conference by the agency’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the hospital also released as vaccinations nationwide expedite.

Unlike the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires one dose, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two vaccinations three to four weeks apart. The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has said repeatedly over the past few months that the US should stick to the two-dose regime.

Dr. Paul Offit, a voting member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products who reviewed both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines for emergency approval, said the CDC study was overall “good news” .

However, he said he feared people would now think a dose of the vaccines was “good enough” and would not return for a second shot. He said studies have shown that immunity actually appears to be “more permanent” after the second dose, meaning protection may last longer.

“The reason these are two-dose vaccines is because the second dose provides a titer of neutralizing antibodies, virus-specific neutralizing antibodies, that is nearly ten times greater than the first dose,” he told CNBC. Neutralizing antibodies play an important role in the defense of cells against the virus.

Second, and more importantly, scientists have also discovered what are known as T cells, another important part of the immune response that usually lasts longer Immunity, he said.

There are also still questions about the highly contagious variants and whether the vaccines protect mild to moderate forms of the disease, he said.

Of the 3,950 participants in the study, 2,479, or 62.8%, received both recommended doses, and 477, or 12.1%, received only one dose, according to the CDC. The infection rate among the vaccinated participants was 0.04 compared to 1.38 among the non-vaccinated participants.

The study was conducted in eight locations in the United States: Phoenix, Tucson, and other areas in Arizona; Miami, Florida; Duluth, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Temple, Texas; and Salt Lake City, Utah. The majority of the participants were female, white, and had no chronic illnesses, according to the CDC.

The study had limitations, the CDC said, adding that delays in deliveries could reduce virus detection sensitivity of Covid-19 tests.

Preliminary real-world vaccine efficacy results for both vaccines complement and expand on estimates of vaccine efficacy from other recent studies, the CDC said. A large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February found that Pfizer’s vaccine was 94% effective against symptomatic Covid.

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AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine Is Discovered to Be 79% Efficient in U.S. Research

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine Is Found to Be 79% Effective in U.S. Study

However, the rate at which several nations discontinued use of the vaccine reflected a reluctance about its safety and effectiveness that contrasts sharply with the confidence shown in other vaccines. Confidence in the vaccine has fallen in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and, to a lesser extent, the UK, according to surveys.

Participants who received the vaccine in the study did not have an increased risk of blood clots or related diseases. And a specific search did not find any cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis – blood clots in the brain that can cause dangerous bleeding – which raise some of the most serious concerns in Europe.

Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow on Global Health at the University of Southampton in the UK, said the results could allay concerns not only in Europe but around the world. He said he had received messages in the past few days from colleagues in Ghana resenting how he could explain safety concerns to people who had just celebrated the arrival of the vaccine weeks earlier.

“Given the light raids the AstraZeneca vaccine has suffered in the past few weeks – and particularly in the last week or two in Europe – there is new data to show that it is safe and effective, if you excuse the phrase , a good shot of the arm, ”he said. “The publication of these results is actually quite well timed as the vaccine may be hesitant.”

The US study also found no cases of serious neurological problems. This was a cause for concern last summer after two volunteers at AstraZeneca’s trial in the UK became ill with neurological problems. Although these cases forced a seven-week suspension of the clinical trial in the US, the researchers ultimately concluded that the diseases could not be linked to the vaccine. Still, the delay has been a key factor in why AstraZeneca has so far lagged behind three other vaccine manufacturers that have received emergency clearance in the United States.

According to AstraZeneca, the vaccine worked well across all races and ages. The vaccine was 80 percent effective in approximately 6,000 subjects over 65 years of age – results that likely allay concerns about insufficient clinical trial data on how well the vaccine works in the elderly. Some countries temporarily limited vaccinations with the shot to younger people before reversing course to allow use in all age groups after data from the vaccine’s launch in the UK showed the vaccine offered strong protection in the elderly.

Even if the vaccine is not used in the US, obtaining emergency clearance from the FDA – whose rigorous review process is considered the global gold standard – would be a major milestone for AstraZeneca. Some countries that have not yet approved the vaccine may try to follow the FDA’s lead.

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79% efficient in U.S. trial

EU says AstraZeneca not doing enough to meet vaccine delivery target

A healthcare professional will prepare a dose of the Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccine center at the Brighton Center in Brighton, southern England on January 26, 2021.

Ben Stensall | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – The results of a large US study showed that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness and 100% effective against serious illness and hospitalization.

The vaccine’s safety and efficacy analysis published on Monday was based on 32,449 participants from a Phase 3 study.

By comparison, Moderna’s vaccine was found to be greater than 94% effective in preventing Covid, and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine was found to be 95% effective.

AstraZeneca announced that it will continue to analyze the data and prepare for the primary analysis to be submitted to the US Food and Drugs Administration for emergency approval in the coming weeks.

It comes shortly after a flood of countries temporarily suspended the use of the shot after blood clots were reported in some people who had been vaccinated. Health experts sharply criticized the move, citing a lack of data, while analysts expressed concerns about the impact on vaccine uptake as the virus continues to spread.

Germany, France, Italy and Spain, among others, have resumed use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after the European Medicines Agency found the shot was both safe and effective in its initial investigation into possible side effects.

The World Health Organization and the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis have recommended that countries continue to use the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

AstraZeneca said in a press release Monday that an independent board had not identified any safety concerns related to the shot. With the help of an independent neurologist, they also performed a specific check for blood clots as well as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), an extremely rare blood clot in the brain.

The Data Safety Monitoring Board “found no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterized by thrombosis in the 21,583 participants who received at least one vaccine dose. The specific search for CVST found no events in this study.”

AstraZeneca’s shares traded nearly 1% early this morning.

“Urgently needed” additional vaccination option

Ann Falsey, Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Rochester, USA, and Co-Lead Principal Investigator for the study, said, “This analysis validates the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a much-needed additional vaccine option and offers adults confidence all ages can benefit from protection against the virus. “

The drug company said the shot was well tolerated and its effectiveness was consistent in terms of ethnicity and age.

In particular, the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot was 80% effective in preventing Covid in participants 65 and over.

A healthcare worker receives the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan on Monday March 22, 2021. Taiwan started vaccinating against coronavirus today.

I-Hwa Cheng | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“These results add to the growing evidence showing that this vaccine is well tolerated and highly effective against all degrees of COVID-19 and across all ages,” said Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca. in a statement.

“We are confident that this vaccine can play an important role in protecting millions of people worldwide from this deadly virus,” said Pangalos.

Among the participants in the interim analysis, around 20% were 65 years of age and older, while around 60% had comorbidities that were associated with an increased risk of progression to severe Covid such as diabetes or heart disease.

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All three Covid vaccines extremely efficient, urges individuals to take obtainable shot

All three Covid vaccines highly effective, urges people to take available shot

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a press conference at the White House in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on January 21, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday he would be taking the newly approved Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine and urged Americans to take the available shot if they are eligible.

The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday approved J & J’s vaccine, giving the US a third tool to fight the pandemic after vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. The company expects to ship 20 million cans by the end of March.

“All three of them are really pretty good, and people should go for the one that is best available to them,” Fauci said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“If you go to a place and have J&J, and that’s the one that’s available now, I’d take it,” Fauci said. “Personally, I would do the same. I think people need to be vaccinated as soon and as quickly as possible.”

The J&J vaccine is different from the others in that it is a single dose and patients do not have to return for a second dose. It can be stored at refrigerator temperature for months. The shot has shown an overall effectiveness of 66%, 72% in the USA and 57% in South Africa, where variant B.1.351 has spread rapidly.

Although the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines showed higher efficacy rates in two-dose studies compared to J & J’s single-dose vaccine, Fauci insisted that the J&J shot isn’t a weaker vaccine, and the trial data shouldn’t be for the three Shots are compared as they were tested at different times.

“You must now have three highly effective vaccines,” said Fauci. “There is no doubt about that.”

As the country sees a decline in new coronavirus cases and an improvement in vaccination rates, Fauci warned states to relax restrictions on pandemics prematurely, which could lead to a renewed spike in infections.

Cases have dropped from 300,000 a day to around 70,000, a baseline that’s still too high, Fauci said.

“We don’t want to keep preventing people from doing what they want. But let’s get to a good level,” Fauci told CBS ‘Face the Nation. “Let’s vaccinate a lot more people. And then you could withdraw these kinds of public health measures.”

“But right now that we are going under and reaching a plateau, it is not time to declare victory because we are not yet victorious,” he said.

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Dow futures prolong losses after J&J says vaccine much less efficient in opposition to some Covid variants

Dow futures extend losses after J&J says vaccine less effective against some Covid variants

U.S. stock futures were significantly lower in early Friday trading after Johnson & Johnson said its one-off coronavirus vaccine showed less effectiveness in some regions.

The average Dow Jones Industrial futures lost 160 points, or 0.5%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.3%. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 1.5%.

Futures accelerated losses after JNJ said its single-dose vaccine had shown an overall 66% effectiveness in protecting against Covid-19. The vaccine was 72% effective in the US, 66% in Latin America, and 57% in South Africa at four weeks. The vaccine provided full protection against hospital stays related to Covid. JNJ’s shares fell 3.7% in the pre-market.

Stocks had rebounded to hit record highs in hopes that vaccines against Covid would be effective to allow for a smooth economic reopening before the end of the year. New mutations that are more resistant to vaccines could improve the bright outlook for investors.

Increased speculative trading by private investors also continued to worry the market. GameStop’s shares doubled in premarket trading after Robinhood announced it would restrict purchases of the stock and other heavily shortened names after restricting access the previous day. Robinhood raised more than $ 1 billion overnight from its existing investors and also used the banks’ credit lines to ensure that the capital was in place to start trading the volatile stocks again.

Investors are concerned that if GameStop continues to rise in such volatility, it could penetrate financial markets and cause losses at brokers like Robinhood and force hedge funds that bet against the stock to sell other stocks to raise cash.

There are also fears that the GameStop mania is a sign of a bigger bubble in the market, and that its dissolution could also create turmoil and hit retail investors hard. Several e-brokers took steps Thursday to curb intentional buying of highly speculative names. A number of lawmakers also called for an investigation into the chaotic trade.

“Between calling for hearings and reports in Washington, Robinhood was forced to not only draw on its credit lines but also raise $ 1 billion from existing investors. The whole situation continues to undermine market confidence,” said Adam Crisafulli, founder of Vital Knowledge, note in a Friday.

It’s been a volatile week on Wall Street. The Dow lost more than 600 points on Wednesday and suffered its worst sell-off in three months. Then the blue chip benchmark rallied 300 points on Thursday amid a broad market rally. All three major averages have lost at least 1% this week.

The market also saw its highest trading volume in years as the mania heated up. On Wednesday, the total market volume reached more than 23.7 billion shares, surpassing the level at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. On Thursday, there was also extremely strong trading with more than 19 billion shares that changed hands.

A wave of retailers motivated each other on the red-hot WallStreetBets Reddit forum to pile into the most hated names of hedge funds, resulting in massive short-bruising of stocks. GameStop is up more than 900% in January, while AMC Entertainment is up over 300% this month.

“This smaller capitalization rally would likely destabilize and lead to inefficiencies,” Christopher Harvey, senior equity analyst at Wells Fargo, said in a note. “Stocks are ultimately fundamentals – and reversals can be very painful, both up and down.”

However, some believe that the impact on the overall market should be limited as the retail crowd is focused on only a handful of names.

“While we believe there will be more pain, we remain optimistic that it will likely stay local,” said Maneesh Deshpande, head of equity derivatives strategy at Barclays. “Long-short hedge funds have relatively little market exposure, which indicates little impact on the overall market due to deleveraging.”

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Novavax says drug is greater than 89% efficient

Novavax says drug is more than 89% effective

Biotech company Novavax announced Thursday that its coronavirus vaccine was more than 89% effective against Covid-19 in its Phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the UK.

The results were based on 62 confirmed Covid-19 infections among the 15,000 participants in the study. The company said 56 cases were seen in the placebo group, up from six cases in the group that received the vaccine. This resulted in an estimated vaccine effectiveness of 89.3%.

The company’s shares rose more than 23% in after-hours trading.

With the results, the company “has the potential to play an important role in solving this global public health crisis,” said Stanley Erck, CEO of Novavax, in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners, employees, investigators and regulators around the world to make the vaccine available as soon as possible.”

The study also found that the vaccine against the British variant, also known as B.1.1.7, appeared to be 85.6% effective. A separate Phase 2 study in South Africa showed that the vaccine is nowhere near as effective against a new strain ravaging that country.

The shot was still considered effective in protecting against the virus, but with an effectiveness rate of only 49.4% among 44 Covid-19 cases in South Africa, where 90% of the cases contain the problematic new variant, the company said.

Due to the lower effectiveness against the strain in South Africa, Novavax plans to select a modified version of the vaccine to provide better protection against the new strain “in the coming days”. The modified vaccine is scheduled to be tested in the second quarter of this year.

Novavax is among several companies developing a vaccine against the virus which, according to Johns Hopkins University, infected more than 101 million people worldwide and killed at least 2.2 million people as of Thursday. To date, only two vaccines – from Pfizer and Moderna – have been approved for use in the United States.

In July, as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed ​​initiative, the U.S. government announced that it would pay Novavax $ 1.6 billion to develop and manufacture the potential vaccine, with a goal of 100 million doses by early 2021 submit.

It’s unclear whether Thursday’s data will be enough for Novavax to obtain an emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration that would allow distribution in the U.S. The company began a late test involving 30,000 people in the US and Mexico late December.

Novavax’s vaccine contains synthesized parts of the surface protein that the coronavirus uses to infect humans. The company said the vaccine was well tolerated, adding that “serious, serious and medically treated adverse events occurred in low levels and were balanced between vaccine and placebo groups”.

In August, the company announced that data from the first phase of the study showed that the vaccine had produced a promising immune response. Participants received two doses of the potential vaccine, approximately 21 days apart, by intramuscular injection. Novavax also said the vaccine was well tolerated and no serious adverse events were reported.

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Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine prone to be efficient in opposition to UK variant

Pfizer to temporarily reduce Covid vaccine deliveries to Europe

A picture taken on January 15, 2021 shows a pharmacist holding a vial of undiluted Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19 with gloved hands, which is stored at -70 ° in a super freezer at Le Mans hospital in northwestern France became country runs a vaccination campaign to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Jean-Francois Monier | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech is likely just as effective against a highly transmissible mutant strain of the virus, first discovered in the UK, according to a study by the two companies.

It was estimated that those listed as B.1.1.7. Well-known variant first appeared in the UK in September 2020. It has an unusually high number of mutations and is associated with more efficient and faster transmission.

The characteristics of the variant had raised concerns about the effectiveness of Covid vaccines against them.

However, studies published on the preprint server bioRxiv showed “no biologically significant difference in the neutralization activity” between the laboratory tests on B.1.1.7 and the original strain of the coronavirus.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that all of the mutations associated with the newly discovered variant were neutralized by antibodies in the blood of 16 participants who had previously been given the vaccine.

Half of the participants were between 18 and 55 years old and the other half between 56 and 85 years old.

The study’s authors warned of the rapid spread of Covid variants around the world, which required “continuous monitoring of the importance of changes in maintaining protection from currently approved vaccines.”

It is the first of its kind to be completed by a major Covid vaccine manufacturer as other pharmaceutical companies scramble to test the effectiveness of their respective vaccines.

Moderna and AstraZeneca, who worked with Oxford University to develop a Covid vaccine, both previously announced that their vaccines will be effective against B.1.1.7.

Virus spread

Earlier this month, Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, told CNBC that the German pharmaceutical company is confident that its vaccine will develop an immune response against B.1.1.7.

Sahin said he believes the vaccine should also prove effective against a variant discovered in South Africa – another highly transmissible variant that has caused concern among public health experts.

His comments came shortly after initial tests showed that Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be effective against a key mutation in the more infectious variants of the virus discovered in the UK and South Africa. Now, scientists from both companies have published research indicating that the vaccine is likely to be effective against all mutations associated with B.1.1.7.

In recent weeks, optimism about the global roll out of Covid vaccines has been tempered by the resurgent rate of spread of the virus.

To date, more than 96.2 million people have contracted the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 2.05 million people dying.

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BioNTech CEO says vaccine is efficient towards new strains

BioNTech CEO says vaccine is effective against new strains

The CEO of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech remains confident that the company’s Covid vaccine, developed in partnership with Pfizer, will be effective against the highly infectious variants of the virus discovered in the UK and South Africa.

“We are confident that based on the mechanism of our vaccine, although there are mutations, we believe that the immune response induced by our vaccine could also treat (a) mutated virus,” said Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, said CNBC’s Meg Tirrell on Monday.

“Last week we reported another mutation that is present in both the UK and South African variants. This mutation is believed to be important as it could structurally alter the protein. However, it appears that the immune response to our vaccine does also neutralizes mutation. “

His comments were based on research published Thursday showing that Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be effective against a key mutation in the more infectious variants of the virus discovered in the UK and South Africa.

The study, carried out by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and not yet peer-reviewed, suggested that the vaccine neutralized the so-called N501Y mutation. This mutation has been reported in the coronavirus variants discovered in the UK and South Africa.

The variants, which emerged separately, both share a genetic mutation of the so-called spike protein, which the virus uses to penetrate the cells of the body.

Doctors tentatively welcomed the results of the study last week, but cautioned that the research focused only on the N501Y mutation found in both new variants.

BioNTech’s Sahin said the company will be able to present more data in the coming days examining the full set of mutations.

The new vaccine could be ready “within six weeks”.

Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine uses messenger RNA or mRNA technology, like Moderna’s. In practice, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this “teaches our cells how to make a protein – or even a piece of a protein – that will trigger an immune response in our bodies.”

The resulting immune response produces antibodies that protect people from becoming infected with the virus.

Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of Biontech, is on the company premises. Biontech is a biotechnology company that researches vaccines against the coronavirus, among other things. (Photo by Andreas Arnold / Image Alliance via Getty Images)

Andreas Arnold | Image alliance via Getty Images

When asked how fast BioNTech could turn if the existing Covid vaccine were found to be ineffective against new variants, Sahin said “a key benefit” of mRNA technology is that the company is adapting the vaccine relatively quickly could. “”

“We can change the order of the vaccine in a matter of days and, in principle, deliver a new vaccine within six weeks. This is technically possible and if necessary we would go for it,” he said, noting that it is is would also require discussions with regulators such as the Food and Drug Administration.

“We are therefore confident that the technology with which we can react to a mutation or a virus variant with different problems will react extremely quickly,” said Sahin.

Public health experts have raised concerns that the new mutant strains could pose a threat to vaccination efforts. In recent weeks, optimism about the mass adoption of Covid vaccines has been tempered by the resurgent rate of virus spread around the world.

To date, more than 90.3 million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus, with 1.93 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.