The mutation in the corona virus that has been discovered in the UK has caused a great deal of panic across Europe last week, with more and more countries closing their gates to the kingdom. But despite fears of the new strain of the virus, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which manufactures the vaccine currently used in Israel, claims that the vaccine is probably also effective against the mutation.
At a news conference hosted by Biontech, Pfizer’s German partner in vaccine development, Ugur Sahin, a senior official at the company, said: “We have already tested the vaccine against 20 new strains that have appeared so far of the corona virus and the immune response we received was the same in front of everyone.”
Sahin added that the company will receive final information on the matter in about two weeks, this is because the company’s scientists are still conducting experiments on the mutation. Sahin explained that so far, out of 1,270 amino acids used by the vaccine, only nine have changed in the new strains of the virus, less than a single percent of the vaccine composition.
“Our vaccine makes extensive use of different proteins and causes several different immune responses, which gives us many anchor points for the immune system to cling to when dealing with the disease. The virus will have a hard time escaping from it,” Sahin said, “but that does not mean the new mutation is dangerous. “.
The launch company Aster, which is developing its vaccine with the University of Oxford, has also announced that according to preliminary tests, its vaccine, which is awaiting approval in the UK and US, is also effective against the new mutation.