A laboratory study evaluating Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has found that the South Africa (SA) variant has only a ‘small effect’ on the jab’s efficacy.
The in vitro study, which was published on the pre-print server bioRxiv, used blood samples from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and tested these against the key mutations in the UK and SA variants.
Researchers from Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) engineered three viruses with the key mutations to test against the vaccinated blood samples.
According to this study, the blood samples from individuals vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine neutralised all the SARS-CoV-2 strains tested.
However, the researchers did note that neutralisation against the virus with the three key mutations present in the SA variant was ‘slightly lower’ when compared to the other evaluated viruses.
Despite this slight reduction, Pfizer and BioNTech said that the this slight difference is ‘unlikely’ to cause a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“Pfizer and BioNTech believe that the flexibility of BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to develop new vaccine variants if required,” the companies added.
Pfizer/BioNTech added that they will continue to monitor emerging strains and continue to evaluate the vaccine’s real-world effectiveness.
The companies also reiterated their confidence in the flexibility of BioNTech’s mRNA-based vaccine technology to adapt BNT162b2 to any potential new virus strains, if needed.
The researchers are also engineering a virus with the full set of mutations discovered in the variants, with results from expected as early as next month.
Earlier this week, Moderna announced that its COVID-19 vaccine appears effective against the UK and SA variants.
Researchers found that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine produced neutralising antibodies against both the UK and SA variants.
In the early laboratory study, researchers observed no significant impact on antibodies with the UK variant, relative to prior variants.
However, Moderna also noted that there was a six-fold reduction in neutralising antibodies observed with the SA strain, although the company added that the levels induced by its vaccine should still offer protection.