Pfizer Study Shows Vaccine Efficacious Against COVID-19 Variant

Pfizer Inc PFE/BionNTech SE BNTX COVID-19 showed signs of working against a mutation found in two highly-contagious COVID-19 virus variants detected in the U.K. and South Africa in a laboratory study conducted by Pfizer.

What Happened: These positive findings were spotted during the study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Texas Medical Branch, reports Reuters.

Although the study is not yet vetted by medical peers, Pfizer said, based on results from earlier tests, that the vaccine can effectively combat N501Y mutation as well as 15 other mutations.

Why Does It Matter: Phil Dormitzer — one of the leading viral vaccine scientists engaged with Pfizer — expressed concerns that N501Y mutation could not only be highly-transmittable but it could also potentially avoid the antibody neutralization elicited by the vaccine.

Dormitzer said that the researchers found the vaccine to be effective against the 16 different mutations they have tested so far. But the scientist cautioned that other mutations could still show different results.

Further tests will be conducted to gather data about the vaccine’s efficacy against more mutations of the variants found in South Africa and the U.K., as per Reuters.

Price Action: PFE stock closed Thursday at $37.06, 0.52% higher, and BNTX closed at $93.69, with a 2.78% gain.

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