A full vaccination and booster vaccination, ie three doses of the vaccine against a new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) (Covid-19), is needed to neutralize an omicron variant of the virus, developed in collaboration with German BioNTech and Pfizer in the US, the two said on Wednesday based on the preliminary results of laboratory tests.
According to the communication, investigations have shown that:
a full two-dose vaccine does not adequately inhibit the development of Covid-19 if the omicron variant causes infection but protects against severe disease.
The third dose of the vaccine, on the other hand, increases the number of so-called neutralizing antibody titers by twenty-five times the total vaccination, thus providing adequate protection against omicron.
Although the full vaccine protects against the severe course of Covid-19, the third dose significantly improves protection against the new virus.
– quoted Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s CEO, as said in the statement.
Ugur Sahin, the co-founder of BioNTech, added:
the first laboratory data “suggest that a booster dose may provide adequate protection against any disease caused by the omicron variant”.
At the same time, the German biotechnology company and the US pharmaceutical company are continuing to develop a so-called variant-specific vaccine against omicron. They plan to make the omicron-adapted vaccine available by the end of March if the vaccine, which has been in use in the EU for almost a year, needs to be modified to provide a higher level of protection over a longer period of time. Furthermore, they expect to be able to produce four billion doses of vaccine in 2022, they explained.
MTI
