Ugur Safin, co-founder of BioNTech, said today it is ‘highly likely’ the firm’s vaccine will work against the mutant strain of Covid spreading rapidly in the UK
The co-founder of BioNTech said today it is ‘highly likely’ the German firm’s vaccine will work against the mutant strain of Covid spreading rapidly in the UK.
Ugur Sahin promised that in the unlikely scenario the jab becomes ineffective, his team could re-engineer the vaccine to target the new variant within six weeks.
His comments come amid concerns the strain might make vaccines less effective because of the mutations that have occurred on the virus’s spike protein, which it uses to latch onto human cells and cause illness.
Alterations to the spike are significant because most Covid vaccines, including Pfizer/BioNTech’s approved jab, work by targeting this protein. It is feared these changes could also stop people from becoming immune if they have been infected with a different strain previously.
Test are being carried out to see if Pfizer/BioNTech’s jab has the same 95 per cent effectiveness on the new strain as it does on regular Covid. Those results will be ready in a fortnight, Mr Sahin said.
But in attempt to calm fears about the variant, he added: ‘Scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variant.’
It comes as top scientists questioned the claim by Number 10’s scientists the new strain was more infectious than regular Covid, saying there is ‘no hard evidence’ to prove it. Instead, the wave of cases in the South East may be the result of the disease spreading in a region where more of the population are susceptible it.
Professor David Livermore, a medical microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, said even if the strain is more infectious, it will likely be less lethal.
From an evolutionary standpoint, viruses can transmit more easily if they cause mild or asymptomatic illness because it means carriers continue to go about their daily lives, thereby spreading the contagion more extensively.
His comments come amid concerns the strain might make vaccines less effective because of the mutations that have occurred on the virus’s spike protein, which it uses to latch onto human cells and cause illness (Original illustration of the virus by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Minutes from NERVTAG’s meeting on Friday revealed the expert committee had in fact only ‘moderate confidence’ that the new strain was more transmissible than other variants
Mr Sahin added: ‘We have scientific confidence that the vaccine might protect but we will only know it if the experiment is done… we will publish the data as soon as possible.’
But if needed, ‘in principle the beauty of the messenger technology is that we can directly start to engineer a vaccine which completely mimics this new mutation – we could be able to provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks.’
Mr Sahin said the variant detected in Britain has nine mutations, rather than just one as is usually common.
Nevertheless, he voiced confidence that the vaccine developed with Pfizer would be efficient because it ‘contains more than 1,000 amino acids, and only nine of them have changed, so that means 99 percent of the protein is still the same’.
The UK Government has claimed the new Covid variant is 70 per cent more infectious than the normal version of the virus.
It has been blamed on a wave of cases in London and the South East and used to justify plunging 16million people into a Tier 4 lockdown and crushing their Christmas plans.
However, experts say there is ‘little hard data’ to show the country is in the grip of a particularly harmful new type of virus, nor the belief that ever-more authoritarian restrictions will be effective.
Even NERVTAG, the group that came up with the 70 per cent figure and caused widespread panic in Number 10 on the weekend, admitted it had only ‘moderate confidence’ the new strain demonstrates ‘a substantial increase in transmissibility’.
Professor Livermore said there was even evidence to suggest the variant was less deadly and therefore less of a threat than the original version.
He added: ‘Despite the Government’s recent dramatic show of urgency, this variant appears to have been first identified in Kent as long ago as September, even before the second national lockdown was imposed in England.
‘And that begs two questions: First, if VUI-202012/01 is as harmful as the Government suggests, why did ministers not act sooner, instead of letting the public plan for a relaxed Christmas?
‘Second, if tough new controls are the only answer, why was the lockdown lifted in December?
‘These contradictions arise precisely because of the lack of evidence behind the fear that VUI-202012/01 is sweeping through the country like wildfire.
‘So far its spread seems to be focused on populations that had little exposure to Covid-19 until now, such as in Kent and East Anglia.
‘The problem is that, beyond the frightening headlines, there is little concrete information to underwrite the official claim that the situation is getting ‘out of control’.’
Professor Livermore said even if the disease is more infectious, it will likely mean it is less deadly, and therefore less of a threat to people.
He added: ‘If it does transpire that the new strain is more easily transmitted, we must remember that such a scenario isn’t always a bad thing.
‘In line with Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory about the survival of the fittest, it is a fact of life that viruses evolve and adapt. There are a number of new features that can ensure a particular strain survives.
‘One is a lower infectious dose, where the victim needs to inhale fewer virus particles to become infected. Another is the creation of a milder or asymptomatic form of the disease, which means carriers continue to go about their daily lives, thereby spreading the contagion more extensively.
‘Both of these factors underpin the classic development of infectious diseases, including Covid-19 – that they generally evolve over time to become more transmissible and less lethal.
‘That could be what is happening with the new variant of Covid, which is said to be more infectious, though we do not yet know how severe it is.
‘What we do know is that the collateral damage caused by lockdowns is enormous, from business failures and mass unemployment to poor mental health and chronic loneliness.
‘Amid such a devastating backdrop, our Government must not ignore the consequences of failing to look at the hard data on the new variant’s spread in households and hospitals.’