Pfizer and BioNTech Announce Study of New Vaccine Against the Omicron Variant

Tests will take place on 1,420 participants, who will be divided into three groups; Manufacturers say current immunizer protects against the variant and the aim is to prolong that

Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Tuesday that they have started a clinical study to develop a vaccine against the Omicron variant of Covid -19 . The study will have 1,420 participants aged 18 to 55 and its main purpose is to anticipate the need for vaccines based on variants of the virus. Kathrin U. Jansen, vice president and head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said that even though research and data suggest that the current vaccine provides a high level of protection and prevents severe symptoms and hospitalization, including Omicron infections, there needs to be prepared in case this protection diminishes over time due to the variants that may arise. “Remaining vigilant against the virus requires that we identify new approaches for people to maintain a high level of protection, and we believe that developing and investigating variant-based vaccines such as this one are essential in our efforts to achieve this goal.”

BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin stated that the vaccine continues to provide strong protection against Omicron, but “emerging data indicate that vaccine-induced protection against mild to moderate infections of the disease declines more rapidly than has been observed with strains previous ones”. “The study is part of our scientific approach to developing a variant-based vaccine that achieves a similar level of protection against the micron as recorded against previous variants, but with a longer duration of protection,” explained Ugur

The companies had already announced that this year they estimate to produce 4 billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 and that should not change if an adapted vaccine is needed. For the study, participants will be divided into three group

First, people who took two doses of the current Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within 90 to 180 days of enrollment will be analyzed. They will receive one or two doses of the Ômicron vaccine;
The second group will be people who have already received all three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine 90 to 180 days prior to enrollment. They will be analyzed after taking a dose of the Ômicron vaccine;
The last group will be people who have not been vaccinated. They will take three doses of the Ômicron vaccine.