Can Make Mutation-Beating COVID-19 Vaccine In Six Weeks, BioNTech Founder Assures

The announcement of the new coronavirus strain that has a higher rate of transmission, been found in the United Kingdom, has alarmed the world. The co-founder of BioNTech Ugur Sahin on Tuesday made a statement that it is "highly likely" that their vaccines will work against the new mutated version of the virus. BioNTech chief executive Sahin is confident that a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by his company could also adapt the vaccine, if necessary, in six weeks.

#BREAKING BioNTech says can make mutation-beating vaccine in six weeks pic.twitter.com/iOevh92ZWZ

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 22, 2020

Sahin claimed that the coronavirus shot would be effective against a variant of the virus that has emerged in Britain. "Scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variant," said Sahin, NDTV reported. He also mentioned that the German company is now “generating data” and would further examine the mutation in the coming days but he stressed that he viewed the matter with “with a degree of soberness," Reuters reported Monday.

Many countries have banned flights from or to Britain on Monday as the fear rises about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain. According to Sahin, he hadn't yet been immunised but would like to be as their vaccines to be rolled out after Christmas but if needed, "in principle the beauty of the messenger technology is that we can directly start to engineer a vaccine which completely mimics this new mutation -- we could be able to provide a new vaccine technically within six weeks."

He remained positive about the result and said it was more significant that his employees get the vaccine first so they can continue to do their jobs. So far, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines gained conditional approval in the US, UK, Bahrain Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico, and Switzerland.

Also Read: COVID-19: 90-Year-Old Margaret Keenan Receives First Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine In UK

Feature Image Credit: AP

Read More Stories By Ria Das