Pfizer mentioned Friday that it could produce a COVID-19 vaccine for the new virus strain recognized in South Africa in “approximately 100 days,” topic to authorities regulatory approval.
The pharmaceutical agency mentioned in an announcement to CBS MoneyWatch that its researchers are actually conducting assessments to see if the corporate’s present vaccine is efficient against the variant, dubbed “Omicron” by the World Well being Group.
If not, Pfizer mentioned it might “produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant” alongside its German vaccine companion, BioNTech. Pfizer and BioNTech anticipate to have outcomes from its assessments on Omicron in two weeks, Reuters reported.
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A new vaccine would require approval by the Meals and Drug Administration, presumably underneath emergency use authorization. However that will first require U.S. Well being and Human Providers Secretary Xavier Becerra to declare Omicron a public well being emergency. It took Pfizer and BioNTech from December 2020 to August of this yr to achieve full FDA approval for his or her vaccine.
South African well being officers mentioned Omicron has extra mutations than earlier strains which have beforehand emerged around the globe, together with the Delta variant. The priority is that the new variant may very well be extra transmissible and extra proof against present vaccines, South African epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim advised CBS Information.
“If this variant is as, or more transmissible than the Delta variant, it will be very difficult to anticipate it, to do anything different to what we have seen, which is that it would grow and spread across the world,” Karim mentioned.
The WHO on Friday designated Omicron a “variant of concern,” noting in an announcement that early proof “suggests an increased risk of reinfection.”
Up to now, fewer than 100 instances of the new COVID-19 variant have been confirmed. Most of these instances have been amongst younger individuals in South Africa, who’ve the bottom vaccination price within the nation. Botswana and Hong Kong additionally confirmed instances linked to Omicron in vacationers who had just lately returned from South Africa
The Biden administration mentioned Friday it’s going to limit journey from eight international locations in southern Africa over issues concerning the variant circulating within the area, in line with senior administration officers. The restrictions on journey from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi start Monday.
The restrictions do not apply to Americans or lawful everlasting residents, though these people should nonetheless take a look at detrimental previous to touring.
Different vaccine makers on the case
Different drugmakers mentioned they’re additionally investigating how the new variant interacts with their COVID-19 vaccine.
A spokesperson with Johnson & Johnson advised CBS MoneyWatch that the corporate is “already testing the effectiveness of our vaccine against the new and rapidly spreading variant first detected in southern Africa.” The spokesperson didn’t give a timeline for any potential alterations to its one-shot vaccine.
Moderna mentioned it is also testing how efficient its vaccine is against Omicron, with knowledge from these assessments “expected in the coming weeks.”
“The mutations in the Omicron variant are concerning and, for several days, we have been moving as fast as possible to execute our strategy to address this variant,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel mentioned in an announcement.
Reviews of the new variant rattled world monetary markets. The Dow tumbled greater than 900 factors, or 2.5%, in abbreviated buying and selling on Friday — the worst buying and selling day of the yr for the blue-chip index. The S&P 500 dropped 2.3%, its largest retreat since February, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq misplaced 2.2%.
Against this, vaccine maker shares jumped. Moderna’s inventory worth surged 22% to $33, whereas Pfizer rose 6% to $54. Johnson & Johnson shares had been principally flat.
