According to the result of work communicated on Friday by Pfizer-BioNTech, the vaccine from this same laboratory seems effective against a "key mutation" of the British and South African variants of the coronavirus.
But the brief study is not enough to conclude that the efficacy of the vaccine will be the same against all variants.
Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine appears to be effective against a "key mutation" in the British and South African variants of the coronavirus, according to the result of work released on Friday by the BioNTech laboratory.
"Antibodies from people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with a key mutation that is also found in two highly transmissible strains" identified in Britain and South Africa, says the laboratory in a press release.
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Too early to conclude that the vaccine will be effective against the variants
One of the limits of this brief study, emphasized by the authors themselves, is that it does not cover all the mutations present in these variants.
It is therefore not sufficient to conclude that the efficacy of the vaccine will be the same against the variants as against the classical virus.
Higher transmissibility
The emergence in the United Kingdom and South Africa of these two new variants of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus worries the international community because of its higher transmissibility, according to the first data.
The new variant includes in particular a mutation, called N501Y, in the Spike protein (spicule) of the coronavirus, the tip which is on its surface and allows it to attach to human cells to penetrate them, therefore playing a key role. in viral infection.
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To test the effectiveness of the vaccine, the Pfizer / BioNTech teams associated with the University of Medicine of Texas developed a coronavirus carrying this mutation and then took blood samples from twenty people who had received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, one of the Covid-19 vaccines currently distributed in many countries.
They found "no reduction in neutralizing activity" vis-à-vis the virus carrying the mutation compared to the classic virus, the statement said.
"Good news because it's not bad news"
The authors said results were limited because this test was not done on "the full set of Spike proteins found on rapidly spreading strains in the UK or South Africa."
Experts expressed cautious optimism about the results.
"This is good news, mainly because it's not bad news," said Stephen Evans, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.