German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and US-based pharma major Pfizer on Saturday said they are not sure whether their coronavirus vaccines would be able to help in the treatment of the new COVID-19 variant 'Omicron'.
The pharmaceutical companies also promised to develop a new vaccine against the covid variant identified in South Africa in "approximately 100 days".
This came after the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified a new COVID-19 strain, the B.1.1.529 that was initially found in South Africa as a highly transmissible virus of concern and named it "omicron" under its Greek-letter system.
In a statement, the companies said, " In the event that vaccine-escape variant emerges, Pfizer and BioNTech except to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval."
According to the statement, Pfizer and BioNTech said they expect more data on Omicron within the next two weeks and noted the variant significantly differs from previously observed ones, Sputnik reported.
The companies underscored that they started working on making their coronavirus vaccine adaptable to adjust itself within six weeks and ship initial batches within 100 days, as per the statement.
(with ANI inputs)
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