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Mainz (dpa) - The vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer should also protect against the corona variant B.1.1.7.
A laboratory study by the two companies suggests this.
A German expert finds the data convincing, but so far they have not been published in a peer-reviewed specialist journal.
In Germany and other countries there is fear that more contagious mutants of the coronavirus could massively worsen the infection situation.
In Great Britain, variant B.1.1.7 had spread rapidly - there is also a single evidence in this country.
The mutant is characterized by several changes in what is known as the spike protein.
This component enables the virus to bind to body cells and penetrate them.
At the same time, the spike protein is the target of the vaccine.
Vaccinated persons form antibodies, among other things, which bind to the component and thus render the virus harmless.
Biontech and Pfizer now wanted to know whether the mutations in the spik protein impair the protective effect of the vaccine.
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They did not conduct their experiment with real corona viruses, but with so-called pseudoviruses, which, however, carry the respective spike protein on their surface.
The researchers were able to show that the antibodies from a total of 16 vaccinated persons switch off the pseudoviruses with mutated spike protein practically as effectively as those with unchanged spike protein.
It is therefore “very unlikely” that the vaccine will not protect against diseases caused by variant B.1.1.7, according to the study.
Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, finds the results "very reassuring".
The corresponding vaccination protection would still be given for each of the 16 tested subjects, even compared to the new variant B.1.1.7.
About two weeks ago, an earlier analysis had come to a similar conclusion, but it had only focused on one of the ten mutations in the spike protein of B.1.1.7.
first Pfizer study from early January