BioNTech says it could produce and ship an updated version of its vaccine within 100 days if the new Covid variant detected in southern Africa is found to evade existing immunity.
The biotechnology company is already investigating whether the vaccine it developed with Pfizer works well against the variant, named Omicron, which has caused concern due to its high number of mutations and initial suggestions that it could be transmitting more quickly.
The company says it will know in two weeks whether its current vaccine is likely to be sufficiently effective against the B.1.1.529 variant, based on lab-based experiments.
If required, BioNTech said it is poised to tweak its vaccine to match it more closely to the new variant.
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