Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and BioNTech SE (BNTX) announced Friday results from an in vitro study conducted by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch or UTMB.
The results show the antibodies from people who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with a key mutation that is also found in two highly transmissible strains.
The companies noted that rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported, initially in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
The results were published on the preprint server bioRxiv.
Pfizer, BioNTech, and UTMB said they are encouraged by these early, in vitro study findings.
The companies said, "Further data are needed to monitor the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine's effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 caused by new virus variants. If the virus mutates such that an update to the vaccine is required to continue to confer protection against COVID-19, we believe that the flexibility of BioNTech's proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to enable an adjustment to the vaccine."
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but has been authorized for emergency use to prevent COVID-19.
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