German firm BioNTech said Monday that the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with Pfizer does not require any modifications at the moment to protect against variants of the virus. "To date, there is no evidence that an adaptation of BioNTech's current Covid-19 vaccine against key identified emerging variants is necessary," the company said in a statement. Nevertheless, in preparations for a need at some point to make tweaks to its current vaccine, the company said it began tests in March on a "modified, variant-specific version" of its jabs. An assessment is also ongoing on the impact of a possible third dose in prolonging immunity and in protecting against variants. BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin had said in April that the vaccine works against the Indian variant.

Source: Mint May 10, 2021 11:53 UTC