Pfizer says variant identified in South Africa could significantly reduce protective antibodies from vaccine
A laboratory study suggests that the variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa may reduce protective antibodies elicited by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on Wednesday.
The study found the vaccine was still able to neutralize the virus and there is not yet evidence from trials in people that the variant reduces vaccine protection, the companies said.
Still, they are making investments and talking to regulators about developing an updated version of their mRNA vaccine or a booster shot, if needed.
For the study, scientists from the companies and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) developed an engineered virus that contained the same mutations carried on the spike portion of the highly contagious coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa, known as B1351. The spike, used by the virus to enter human cells, is the primary target of many COVID-19 vaccines.
Researchers tested the engineered virus against blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine, and found a two-thirds reduction in the level of neutralizing antibodies compared with its effect on the most common version of the virus prevalent in U.S. trials.
Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Because there is no established benchmark yet to determine what level of antibodies are needed to protect against the virus, it is unclear whether that two-thirds reduction will render the vaccine ineffective against the variant spreading around the world.
However, UTMB professor and study co-author Pei-Yong Shi said he believes the Pfizer vaccine will likely be protective against the variant.
“We don’t know what the minimum neutralizing number is. We don’t have that cutoff line,” he said, noting that he suspects the immune response observed is likely to be significantly above where it needs to be to provide protection.
WATCH | Canada to ramp up coronavirus vaccine rollout:
Canada has been promised millions more COVID-19 vaccine doses in the coming months, including more deliveries from Pfizer as vaccination campaigns ramp up. 4:05
Vaccine still expected to protect against death
That is because in clinical trials, both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar shot from Moderna conferred some protection after a single dose with an antibody response lower than the reduced levels caused by the variant first identified in South Africa in the laboratory study.
Even if the concerning variant significantly reduces effectiveness, the vaccine should still help protect against severe disease and death, he noted.
Health experts have said that is the most important factor in keeping stretched health-care systems from becoming overwhelmed.
More work is needed to understand whether the vaccine works against the variant first identified in South Africa, Shi said, including clinical trials and the development of correlates of protection — the benchmarks to determine what antibody levels are protective.
Pfizer and BioNTech said they were doing similar lab work to understand whether their vaccine is effective against another variant first found in Brazil.
Moderna published a correspondence in NEJM on Wednesday with similar data previously disclosed elsewhere that showed a six-fold drop in antibody levels versus the variant identified in South Africa.
Moderna also said the actual efficacy of its vaccine against the variant is yet to be determined. The company has previously said it believes the vaccine will work against the variant.
