Study finds Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine works against South African strain

Drug still capable of generating antibodies to fight mutant viruses

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a vaccination centre at the Derby Arena velodrome. Reuters

Boris Johnson visits SureScreen Diagnostics in Derby. Reuters

Boris Johnson speaks with an employee at SureScreen Diagnostics. Reuters

An NHS employee looks over the vaccination bays at the Elland Road mass vaccination centre in Leeds. AP Photo

A healthcare worker shows an elderly woman how to take her swab sample, at a minibus that was converted into a mobile test centre in Walsall. Reuters

Members of staff speak to residents as they carry out mobile door-to-door virus testing to assess the prevalence of the South African Covid-19 variant in the Ealing district of London. AP Photo

A woman is vaccinated at a Covid-19 pop-up vaccination centre, at the East London Mosque in Whitechapel, London. AP Photo

Olivia Smart, advanced practitioner, vaccinates Mewa Singh Khela, 72, with his first dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the Elland Road vaccination centre in Leeds. AP Photo

Pedestrians walk past an NHS Covid-19 vaccination centre in Westfield Stratford City shopping centre in east London. AFP

A deserted Regent Street in London as the third national lockdown continues. AP Photo

Volunteers stand outside a temporary vaccination hub at the Colchester Community Stadium in Colchester. AFP

People arrive to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at Crystal Palace Football Club vaccination centre in London. Reuters

A very quiet Mayfair in London. AP Photo

Face coverings are placed on the statues of former US President Franklyn D. Roosevelt and former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Mayfair, London. AP Photo

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is effective against the UK and South African variants of coronavirus, according to a study.

A separate study in South Africa showed the Oxford-AstraZeneca inoculation failed to prevent mild and moderate cases of Covid-19, prompting the country to suspend its vaccination campaign.

But Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine was able to neutralise the spike mutations in the variants, which make them more infectious.

The companies cited the results of a peer-reviewed study published in the Nature Medicine medical journal on Monday which found the vaccine was still capable of inducing antibodies against the variant.

It was slightly less effective against the South African variant, but Pfizer said the difference was small and unlikely to lead to a notable reduction in efficacy.

But scientists acknowledged the study of 20 people was small, and that the engineered viruses did not include the full set of spike mutations found in the English or South African variants.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they were “prepared to respond” if there was further evidence a new variant could evade vaccine-induced immunity.

Meanwhile, UK Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi urged people to keep faith in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

"While it is right and necessary to prepare for the deployment of an updated vaccine, we can take confidence from the current rollout and the protection it will provide all of us against this terrible disease," he wrote in The Telegraph.

“We need to be aware that even where a vaccine has reduced efficacy in preventing infection there may still be good efficacy against severe disease, hospitalisation and death.”

Pharmacist Naeem Khazee and nurse Jocie Walsh dilute vials of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine at an inoculation centre in England. AFP

Prof Shabir Madhi, who led the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine trial in South Africa, said there was still hope that the vaccine could prevent severe disease.

The average age of the participants in the study was 31, an age group at lower risk of serious illness from Covid-19.

Prof Shabir Madhi said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses similar technology to the Oxford shot, was moderately effective at preventing severe illness.

"Extrapolating from that, there is still some hope the AstraZeneca vaccine might well perform as well as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a different demographic against severe disease," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

“I think the answer will come pretty soon.”

Prof Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London said “nobody should hesitate to have the vaccine”.

“I am unfettered in my enthusiasm for the vaccines we’ve got in the UK,” he said.