Drugmakers Assessing COVID Vaccines Against More Contagious Strain Found in UK

Vaccine makers are currently evaluating if a new, highly contagious COVID-19 strain identified in the UK could slip past their shots, but Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and others are confident their vaccines will protect against the new mutation, which is likely already in the U.S.

Although the highly transmittable mutation of the coronavirus was identified in the UK recently, leading to global fear and travel bans against the country, the makers of the world’s leading COVID-19 vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, believe their highly effective vaccines will protect against the new strain or can be rejiggered to do so.

Both companies’ vaccines are based on messenger RNA technology, containing pieces of genetic material that instruct cells to produce proteins that can help prevent or combat disease. The technology makes mRNA vaccines more flexible than traditional vaccines, as their RNA sequences can be altered to cover new strains if they pose a threat, a Pfizer spokesperson told FDAnews.

“Pfizer and BioNTech have tested sera from people immunized with the BNT162b2 vaccine for its ability to neutralize multiple mutant strains. To date, we have found consistent coverage of all the strains tested,” the company said. “[We] are now generating data on how well sera from people immunized with BNT162b2 may be able to neutralize the new strain from the UK.”

BioNTech CEO Uğur Şahin said Tuesday that the company will have results from the evaluations in two weeks and expressed confidence that the vaccine can protect against the mutation. If a change to the vaccine does end up being needed, the new vaccine could be produced in about six weeks, he said, though he added it would likely take longer because the changed shot would need to be discussed with scientific and medical experts and accepted by regulators.

Similarly, Moderna believes its vaccine, the second one authorized for emergency use in the U.S., is also protective against the new mutation but the company is conducting additional tests in the next few weeks to be sure.

CureVac, whose mRNA-based vaccine is in late-stage trials, also expects its candidate to handle the new mutation without issue, noting that viral variations are not a rare occurrence and that it often evaluates variants against its experimental shot.

“A lower efficacy of our vaccine candidate due to the current variant is currently not expected,” a CureVac spokesperson said. “We are constantly investigating variants as they are common and also testing their impact if we think they are relevant.”

Former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday that although the UK strain is probably in the U.S. already, there is no evidence yet that it’s circumventing vaccines or prior immunity, adding that vaccines may need to be adjusted over time.

“Over time it will evolve in ways that it can probably obviate prior infection or our vaccines to some degree, so we’ll probably need to adapt our vaccines over time,” he said.

Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the University of Oxford’s international coronavirus vaccine trials, told FDAnews “there is no evidence so far that the vaccines will be any less effective against this new strain of the virus.”

“The virus is expected to change through mutation to make new variants, as had happened recently in the South East, which has made the virus more transmissible,” Pollard said. “Changes in the virus are being monitored closely by scientists, and it's important we continue to remain vigilant for changes in the future.” — James Miessler