Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is prone to be efficient towards the UK variant

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.

Investigations that were published on Wednesday on the preprint server bioRxiv, however, showed “no biologically significant difference in the neutralization activity” between the laboratory tests on the original strain of the coronavirus and the variant known as B.1.1.7.

The authors of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, warned of the rapid spread of Covid variants around the world, which required “continuous monitoring of the importance of changes to the protection maintained by currently approved vaccines”.