BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine seen effective against new mutations of COVID-19

Germany’s BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX) and partner Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) on Friday announced results from an in vitro study conducted by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) that shows the antibodies from people who have received the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine, BNT162b2 (now trade-named Comirnaty in Europe), effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with a key mutation that is also found in two highly transmissible strains. The results were published on the preprint server bioRxiv and are available  here.

Rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported, initially in the UK and South Africa. These variants have multiple mutations in their spike or S glycoproteins, which are key targets of virus neutralizing antibodies. Though these two rapidly spreading viruses are different, they share the N501Y mutation, which is located in the receptor binding site of the spike protein and results in the virus’s spike protein binding more tightly to its receptor. It has been shown to infect mice more efficiently.

To determine if sera of people who had received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with the N501Y mutation, a virus with this substitution was generated in UTMB’s laboratory. The sera of 20 participants from the previously reported Phase III trial neutralized the virus with the mutation as well as they neutralized virus without the mutation.