If needed, can make Covid-19 vaccine that works against new mutation in 6 weeks: BioNTech

Team Udayavani, Dec 22, 2020, 4:12 PM IST

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin on Tuesday said his company can make a new coronavirus vaccine that works against the mutated strain detected in the UK in six weeks in case the mutation is resistant to its current vaccine.

BioNTech has developed a Covid-19 vaccine with Pfizer. Sahin said that the proteins on the UK variant are 99% the same as on the prevailing strains, and therefore BioNTech has “scientific confidence” that its vaccine will be effective. He further said that it is “highly likely” that the vaccine will work against the new mutation.

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, he added