A vaccine that protects against the omicron variant of COVID-19 could be made within 100 days, Pfizer and BioNTech announced Friday.
Pfizer said it is working to adapt the vaccine and monitoring for emerging strains of the virus, the most recent of which, B.1.1.529, known as “omicron,” was discovered by the World Health Organization in South Africa. BioNTech also said it is monitoring the highly transmissible “variant of concern.”
“As always, we will continue to follow the science as we examine the best approaches to protecting people against COVID-19,” Pfizer told Fox Business. “In the event that vaccine-escape variant emerges, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval.”
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BioNTech said the new variant is significantly different than other mutations in its proteins. The company expects to have more data in two weeks.
“This data will provide more information about whether B.1.1.529 could be an escape variant that may require an adjustment of our vaccine if the variant spreads globally,” a spokesperson told the outlet.
The spokesperson confirmed the companies prepared a system that will prepare a vaccine within six weeks and the first shipment within 100 days. The companies have also begun clinical trials with “variant-specific vaccines (alpha and delta) to collect safety and tolerability data that can be provided to regulators as part of the blueprint studies in the event of [a] needed variant-specific vaccine,” the spokesperson said.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla previously confirmed the 100-day plan in case of mutations.
Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of a one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, is testing the effectiveness of its inoculation against the new strain.
“[We are] already testing the effectiveness of our vaccine against the new and rapidly spreading variant first detected in southern Africa,” a spokesperson told Fox. “We remain steadfast in the benefit the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will provide to millions around the world.”
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The new South African variant has been detected in Hong Kong, Israel, Botswana, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.
There have been more than 47 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and more than 773,000 deaths have been attributed to the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Representatives for Pfizer did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
