Immediate response of pharmaceutical companies to the new variant
The SARS-CoV-2 variant that emerged in South Africa and has been called Omicron it is already one of the most worrisome to scientists. its recent discovery, which means that it has hardly been analyzed; its high rate of reinfection and transmissibility; and the large number of mutations that it possesses make it a variant with “A lot of risk“For the population, according to experts. For this reason, the most important laboratories are already working on a vaccine to combat it.
Pfizer-BioNTech, adaptation in 100 days
The german BioNTech, which together with Pfizer has developed one of the most effective vaccines against COVID, is already doing research on Ómicron and is confident that the adaptation process will take six weeks. A company spokesperson assures that understand “the concern of the experts” about this variant, since it is very different from those known so far. The German laboratory hopes to have enough information about it in two weeks, to know to what extent it avoids the effectiveness of the current vaccine. Once they get this information, they expect to have it adapted in 100 days.
Moderna works with three lines of action
The American laboratory of Modern announced this Friday that is also working to adapt its vaccine to this new variant, so that it is also effective against it. In a statement, they note that Ómicron poses a “significant potential risk to accelerate the decline in natural and vaccine-induced immunity.” Although, unlike BioNTech, they do not give an approximate date, they assure that they are gathering information on the behavior of the variant before the vaccine, to adapt it as quickly as possible to that one. Other solutions proposed are the higher dose application of the current injection or two candidates of multivalent boost including include some of the viral mutations present in the new variant.
Johnson & Johnson, collecting data
This laboratory is testing the effectiveness of its vaccine, which according to a recent study is close to 73%, against the new variant. However, only they report that they are “closely monitoring new strains of the COVID-19 virus with variations in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein,” so it is not known if they will adapt the current vaccine or if they will follow another line of action.
AstraZeneca
The British company is testing its antibody combination therapy against the new variant in places where its presence has been detected. From the laboratory they maintain the “Hope” Your Vaccine “Will Maintain Efficacy, since it comprises two powerful antibodies with different and complementary activities against the virus “.
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