Jonathan Van-Tam says 'no time to delay' over Omicron variant
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Albert Bourla said the drugmaker started work on Friday with the first DNA template for a new jab. It comes after fears were heightened over the new Omicron variant, first discovered in South Africa that could evade current vaccines. The discovery prompted swift action from the UK, EU and US – who all missed a travel ban on Southern African countries.
Some are hopeful that it may not be as dangerous as first thought, but nonetheless experts say there is a need to study it further.
Mr Bourla said: “Within 95 days, basically we will have a new vaccine.
“Friday, we made our first DNA template which is the first part of the manufacturing, of the development process of a new vaccine, and we have made clear that we will be able to have a vaccine in less than 100 days.
“In fact, we have already two vaccines built in less than 100 days. We built one for delta that we did not use because the current vaccine is very effective against delta.
“We built one for beta, which also we didn’t have to use, so we will build one for omicron that will be used only in case we need it if we see that the current one doesn’t work.”
Pfizer also plans to trial its delta and beta vaccines against omicron to see whether they work better than the current jabs, based on the original “wild type” virus.
Under the timeline, there could be a vaccine ready for late February.
Speaking on Monday, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said scientists are working to discover if the new variant is associated with higher transmission, risk of reinfection and how it reacts to vaccines.
He said: “Omicron’s very emergence is another reminder that although many of us think we are done with Covid-19, it is not done with us.”
The announcement on November 25 of a new variant sparked global panic, with one expert describing it as “the worst one we’ve seen so far”.
Its catalogue of 32 mutations has made the virus “dramatically different” to anything seen before, according to experts.
The mutations occur throughout the virus, including on the spike protein which allows the coronavirus to enter human cells, leaving leading molecular biologists and virologists in the UK concerned.
But the South African doctor who raised the alarm over the new COVID-19 variant has now said patients with Omicron have “very mild symptoms”.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of the South African Medical Association, was one of the first to detect there was a new strain.
She says she has seen around 30 patients over the past 10 days who tested positive for COVID-19 but had unfamiliar symptoms.
They are suspected to have the Omicron variant, but Dr Coetzee says the symptoms are “very mild”.
Mr Bourla added: “I don’t think that the result will be that the vaccines don’t protect.
“I don’t know if it will be equally effective at 95 plus per cent against the omicron.
“But I will be very surprised if we are very, very, very low.”
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