Frankfurt, Dec. 3 (BUS) – The CEO of Germany’s BioNTech (22UAy.DE) said it should be able to adapt a coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the emergence of an alternative Omicron, CEO Ugur Sahin said at an upcoming Reuters conference on Friday.
Reuters said BioNTech and Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) together have produced one of the first vaccines against COVID-19, and Shaheen also said that vaccines should continue to provide protection against severe disease, despite the surge.
“This variant may be able to infect vaccinated people,” Shaheen said. “We expect that infected people who have been vaccinated will remain protected from severe disease.”
The BioNTech CEO also said mutations in the virus mean annual vaccines will likely become likely, as is the case with seasonal influenza and that a new vaccine will be required against COVID-19, although it is not yet clear when it will be needed.
Much remains unknown about Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa last month and has been monitored in at least two dozen countries, just as parts of Europe were already grappling with a wave of delta-type infections.
“We expect that this variant will be able to infect people who have been vaccinated, and this variant is likely to be able to infect people with higher exposure. And that is one of the things that is now becoming more clear. It is not clear if this variant produces the highest exposure,” Shaheen said. A more serious disease.
The CEO of BioNTech, whose work until the emergence of the COVID-19 coronavirus in 2020 was focused on cancer, said a new alternative appeared sooner than expected, adding that he was expecting one sometime in 2022.
NS