U.S. – With accelerated vaccination campaigns after the appearance of three new strains of coronavirus, laboratories have worked on the development or improvement of their immunizers to respond to threats. In this setting, the American-German duo Pfizer–BioNTech said this Thursday, February 25, that he is studying adding a third dose to his regimen vaccines, as well as testing a new version aimed at the South African variant of the virus.
As countries around the world rush to vaccinate their populations, concern is mounting that the most transmissible variants of the coronavirus, such as the one first detected in South Africa or another in Britain, are more resistant to existing vaccines. According to AFPIn a study, the pharmaceutical duo said it would observe what happens when people are given a third dose of their two-shot vaccine, between six and twelve months after the booster.
In addition, they noted in a statement that it is also asking health regulators to test a modified version of its original vaccine to deal with the South African variant known as B.1.351. “We are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be prepared in the event that a strain becomes resistant to the protection provided by the vaccine,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, said in a statement.
The South African variant of the virus is considered one of the most dangerous because it evades some of the blocking action exerted by antibodies against the older strain. This means that people who were infected with the parent strain are more likely to be reinfected, and research has shown that the South African variant partially reduces the protection of the current generation of vaccines.
Moderna, the other company whose vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the United States, said on Wednesday that doses of its new vaccine candidate for COVID-19, targeting the South African variant, had been shipped to the National Institutes of United States Health for your test.
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