BioNTech Chief Executive Ugur Sahin said on Monday he was confident a Covid-19 vaccine co-developed by his company with Pfizer would be effective against a variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain.
European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke said the agency believed the vaccine would be effective against the new coronavirus mutation identified in the UK and seen in patients in several EU countries.
He said on Bild TV that the German company would investigate the mutation in the coming days but that he viewed the matter with “with a degree of soberness”.
Countries across the globe shut their borders to Britain on Monday due to fears about a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of food shortages in the United Kingdom.
Sahin was speaking shortly after the European Union cleared regulatory hurdles for the vaccine, co-developed with Pfizer, to be rolled out after Christmas.
The note of calm from the CEO about the UK mutation echoed the World Health Organization, which cautioned against major alarm, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic’s evolution.
Sahin said he hadn’t yet been immunised but would like to be. He said it was more important that his employees get the vaccine so they can continue to do their jobs.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the first Covid-19 shot to win approval from the EU medicines regulator, clearing the way for vaccinations to begin across the 27-member bloc within days. Cooke has hailed the decision to authorise the vaccine as a “major step in the right direction” and “an indication that 2021 can be brighter than 2020”.
The European Commission has provisionally designated December 27, 28 and 29 as “EU vaccination days” to begin the rollout of vaccinations for many of the bloc’s 446 million inhabitants.