BioNTech SE has said that the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with Pfizer should be as effective against the new coronavirus variant first identified in India as it has been found to be against the South African variant.

A company statement said that Chief Executive Ugur Sahin felt encouraged by latest findings in a scientific paper based on blood analysis of vaccinated individuals, which indicates that the antibodies evoked by the vaccine could neutralize the virus variant first detected in India. Since the blood tests on the variant first identified in South Africa had exhibited similar results, encouraging real-world data on the vaccine effectiveness against the South African variant of about 75% made him believe that the vaccine’s actual effectiveness against the Indian variant might also be similar… (Reuters, May 20, 2021)