Vaccines Against New Variants: How Vaccine Manufacturers Are Getting Forward Against Omikron

For weeks, pharmaceutical companies have been investigating whether they need to adapt their vaccines to the ever faster spreading coronavirus variant Omikron.

The vaccines were originally developed against the so-called wild type of Sars-CoV-2, which was first discovered in China at the end of 2019.

While the agents used since the turn of the year 2020/2021 also showed their effect against later virulent mutants such as Alpha or Delta, it could look different with Omikron.

How does Omikron differ from the other variants?

Compared to the original wild type, Omikron shows more than 30 mutations, especially in the spike protein with which the virus enters human cells.

Some of these mutations are also present in other variants - for example at Alpha, said Biontech founder Ugur Sahin recently.

But the earlier variants only showed around 10 to 15 mutations.

These changes at Omikron could - according to the fear - mean that the previous vaccines against infection are less effective and that the antibodies formed in the body after a vaccination are insufficient.

Researchers see indications that Omikron is more contagious than the Delta variant currently prevalent in Germany.

Since when has a vaccine update been researched?

Above all, the manufacturers of the mRNA preparations, Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna, have been advertising since the beginning of their first-time vaccines with the possibility of being able to adapt them quickly to virus changes. Both have been preparing their funds for possible mutations of the coronavirus for months - including with clinical examinations. "These studies have shown that variant vaccines are equally well tolerated and show symptoms similar to the original vaccine against the wild type," said Sahin.

The US manufacturer Moderna began adapting its mRNA vaccine specifically against the Omikron variant at the end of November.

"We have multivalent candidates who have already been optimized for earlier variants such as Beta or Delta and who are already in clinical testing," said Germany Managing Director Gerald Wiegand of the German Press Agency.

"Data has already come together."

The manufacturer Astrazeneca has also taken the first steps together with researchers from Oxford University to produce an omicron vaccine in the event that it is needed.

There was initially no time information.

When can an omicron vaccine be expected?

According to the company, Biontech already creates the prerequisites for being able to manufacture the product quickly.

The production process does not differ from that for the previous product, it said.

Company founder Özlem Türeci recently assumed that the first commercial batches of a special Omikron vaccine could be available in March - and then millions of them.

With regard to the preliminary study results, however, Türeci restricted: “These are not a basis for making preventive decisions about the need for a vaccine adapted to Omikron.

We have to evaluate further laboratory data and, above all, data from practice, which are expected in the next few weeks. ”Only then will it be possible to see how things will proceed.