BioNTech CEO said he does not know at the moment if the current vaccine can protect against the new COVID-19 strain in the U.K. but is optimistic that it does. Creating a new vaccine is possible in six weeks.
- The U.K COVID-19 variant has nine different mutations and raises concerns if available vaccines work against it.
- Scientifically, a vaccine can deal with a new variant but needs two weeks to get data.
- BioNTech has “scientific confidence” in the vaccine with the proteins on the variant 99% similar to the prevailing strains.
- BioNTech sees data on preventing infections on a new variant by the end of January or February 2021
U.S. stock market gains. SPY is up 0.092% on premarket, QQQ is up 0.41% on premarket.
