German biopharmaceutical company BioNTech should be able to tailor its COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the emergence of the omicron variant, chief executive Ugur Sahin said.
BioNTech and Pfizer Inc together produced one of the first immunizations against the COVID-19 and Sahin said these vaccines should continue to provide protection against serious diseases, despite the mutations.
“This variant could infect vaccinated people. We anticipate that infected people who have been vaccinated will still be protected against serious disease”, He indicated.
He also commented that mutations in the virus meant that vaccinations were more likely to be required each year, as is the case with seasonal flu, and that a new COVID-19 vaccine will be needed, although it was not yet clear when.
Much is still unknown about omicron, which was first detected in southern Africa last month and has appeared in at least two dozen countries, just as parts of Europe are grappling with a strong wave of delta-variant infections.
“We estimate that this variant could infect vaccinated people and it is very likely that omicron infects people with high exposure. That is one of the things that we are increasingly clarifying. It is not clear if this variant produces more severe disease.Sahin said.
BioNTech’s chief executive, whose work until the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020 focused on cancer treatments, said the new variant had emerged earlier than expected, as the new strain was anticipated sometime in 2022. .
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