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Uğur Şahin: "The immune response that was triggered by our vaccine has always inactivated all forms of the virus"
Photo: HANDOUT / AFP / Biontech
Biontech boss Uğur Şahin is confident that his company's corona vaccine will also work against the new mutation of the virus that has emerged in the UK.
From a scientific point of view, the probability of this is high, he told the dpa.
“We have already tested the vaccine against around 20 other virus variants with other mutations.
The immune response produced by our vaccine has always inactivated all forms of the virus. "
The virus has now mutated a little stronger, said Şahin.
“We have to test this experimentally now.
This will take about two weeks.
However, we are confident that this will not significantly affect the mechanism of action. "
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According to Şahin, the antigen that the Mainz-based company and its US partner Pfizer use for the vaccine consists of over 1270 amino acids.
Nine of them have now mutated, so not even one percent.
“Our vaccine sees all of the protein and causes multiple immune responses.
As a result, we have so many docking sites that it is difficult for the virus to escape.
But that doesn't mean that the new variant is harmless. «The Biontech vaccine based on the messenger molecule mRNA can in principle be quickly adapted to new variants.
According to Şahin, the comparatively long duration in the EU approval process had no influence on the amount of vaccine doses that the Mainz-based company produced in advance.
“We had already planned a distribution of the vaccine doses in advance since November, and we're sticking to that.
What has changed is of course the number we can deliver this year.
But overall, the number of cans that we promised the EU will not change. "
"Historically by far the fastest drug approval"
He called the EU approval for the Biontech vaccine that took place on Monday "historically by far the fastest drug approval".
Biontech not only had to answer the questions of the EU authorities, but also many questions from individual countries.
"It made the process more strenuous, but it was simply part of taking care of the procedures in the EU correctly step by step."
Neither he nor his wife, Biontech co-founder and medical director Özlem Türeci, have so far been vaccinated with the active ingredient of their company.
"We'd like to do that as soon as we have an appropriate basis," he said.
"It is important for us that we provide our employees in production with the appropriate vaccine doses." The aim is to guarantee the uninterrupted manufacture of vaccines in Biontech's production network over the next twelve months.
"We are therefore considering using a small batch that is independent of the EU quota for this purpose."
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Şahin indicated that Biontech is considering further production facilities for the vaccine in addition to its plants in Mainz and Idar-Oberstein in Rhineland-Palatinate and soon also in Marburg, Hesse.
"We are talking about activating another production facility through a partnership," he said.
There is also the well-known partnership with the pharmaceutical company Dermapharm, which also produces for Biontech.
“We are now trying to find more partners.
We aim to make cans that were planned for the second half of 2021 available in the first half. "
He called the conditional approval of the Biontech vaccine in the EU "great".
He added: “The fact that the EU is now giving us the opportunity to provide people with our Covid-19 vaccine makes us easier and happy.
We have seen a desire in many places for people to want a vaccine. "
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cop / dpa
