Although it may not seem like it, we have come a long way. This pandemic, without a doubt, will go down in history. A completely new vaccine was developed with mRNA. “In the meantime we know a lot more about this virus, how it develops, how it works, and now we can produce a suitable vaccine much faster than we could have six or nine months ago,” said Hans-Georg Eichler, Executive Director of the EMA (European Medicines Agency), on Austrian radio Ö1.
Vaccine development continues
BioNTech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin were also optimistic in an interview in the German magazine “Der Spiegel”: If the virus mutates too much, it is technologically possible to adapt the vaccine. “We could simply replace the genetic information of the antigen of the current virus by the new mutated. It would all happen very quickly and it would take maybe six weeks, “they stated.
But so far it has not been entirely necessary. A peer review just published in “Nature Medicine” confirmed that the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine is effective against the British and South African variants of the coronavirus.
South Africa, however, has discontinued use of the vaccine from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and scientists are still debating how to use that drug. The drug company had previously admitted that the vaccine offered only limited protection against a mild B.1.351 variant infection. However, the vaccine would prevent the serious evolution of COVID.
What to do with less effective vaccines?
The lower effectiveness is reason enough to readjust them so that they do protect against new variants or even against a combination of different mutants.
In the UK, for example, two modified forms of British coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 were discovered. A team of government experts described one of them as “worrying”. For this reason, clinical data and continuous observation of constant changes in viruses are imperative. The University of Oxford, for example, is working on reinforcing a new generation of vaccines.
The infectologist and vaccine researcher Marylyn Addo, from the Clinic of the University of Hamburg – Eppendorf, also emphasized in the magazine ”Der Spiegel” that “we have good tools to counteract the potentially problematic changes of the virus”. SARS-CoV-2 changes relatively slowly compared to other viruses, according to the expert.
Vaccines must be adapted in case the mutations are very extreme.
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Stay up-to-date with mutations
Marylyn Addo said that “we currently have the opportunity to keep up with the virus. But to do this, it is also important to reduce the rate of infections.”
However, not only the development of the vaccine is important, but also the approval of the vaccine in question. Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin from BioNTech also confirm this point. Licensing authorities come into play here. “Do you accept that we have rigorously tested the efficacy and safety of our vaccine once, and then use it against other mutant viruses?” Asks Türeci. Otherwise, another study would have to be conducted with tens of thousands of subjects.
However, Karl Lauterbach, health expert of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the Bundestag and epidemiologist, warns about the dynamics of mutations: “The issue will occupy us especially in the future. By early March the proportion of mutations will have increased. about 30 percent of our cases (in Germany). The problem is that the variant Escape South Africa is in the British variant, and that is the most dangerous, a combined mutation, so to speak, “he explained in an interview in the newspaper” Merkur “.
Hans-Georg Eichler from EMA is well aware of the urgency of the situation. “We, as EMA, are now considering with other international registration authorities, how we can approve these new vaccines as quickly as possible. The details are still unknown, but we certainly will not go back to the beginning, where we were eight or nine months ago.”
(rmr/ers)
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