Three companies are developing vaccines against the mutant Omicron

New York-Sana

Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson announced that, like their competitor Moderna, they have started working on developing a new version of their anti-coronavirus vaccine targeting the Omicron mutant in the event that their vaccine is not effective in protecting against this new version of the virus.

"There is still a lot of uncertainty about the new mutant that was detected in South Africa and described by the World Health Organization as worrisome," Albert Burla, president of Pfizer, said in an interview with US television network CNBC. "We will know the most important thing in a few weeks." .Experiments must be carried out to test the effectiveness of the current vaccine, which was developed by our company in cooperation with Biontech.”

He explained, "If it turns out that the current vaccine is less effective and we need to develop a new vaccine, we started working on it last Friday... and we developed the first DNA model, where the first stage will be the development of a new vaccine."

And Pfizer previously created two new versions of its vaccine to counter the delta and beta mutant, but they were not used.

Burla stressed that if the need arises, “we will have a new vaccine within 95 days,” noting that his company has the capabilities when needed to produce four billion doses next year.

The company Moderna announced last Friday its intention to develop a booster dose of the vaccine intended to protect against the mutant Omicron.

In turn, Johnson & Johnson announced that it is in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of its anti-Covid 19 vaccine against mutants, including Omicron.

The company added in a statement that it is working at the same time to produce a vaccine that specifically targets Omicron and will develop it when necessary, expressing confidence in the currently distributed vaccine because it was able to reach the good mixture from the beginning.

The discovery of the new mutant Omicron in South Africa caused strong reactions around the world, as many countries restricted travel to southern African countries and imposed other restrictions for fear of its rapid spread, even among previously vaccinated people.

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