A full vaccination and booster vaccination, i.e. three doses of the vaccine against the new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) caused by the disease (Covid-19) developed in collaboration with the German BioNTech and the American Pfizer, are required to neutralize the omicron version of the virus, the two companies announced on Wednesday company based on the preliminary results of laboratory tests.

According to the statement, tests have shown that the full vaccination consisting of two doses does not sufficiently prevent the development of Covid-19 if the omicron variant causes the infection, but it protects against the disease with a severe course.

The third dose of the vaccine, on the other hand, increases the number of so-called neutralizing antibody titers twenty-five times compared to the full vaccination, and thus provides adequate protection against omicron.

Although the full vaccination protects against the severe course of Covid-19, the protection against the new virus variant is significantly improved with the third dose - Albert Bourlá, head of Pfizer, was quoted in the announcement.

Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, added that the first laboratory data "suggests that the booster vaccine may provide adequate protection against disease of any severity caused by the omicron variant."

At the same time, the German biotechnology company and the American pharmaceutical company continue to develop the so-called variant-specific vaccine against Omicron. According to their plans, if the vaccine that has been used in the EU for almost a year needs to be modified in order to provide a higher level of protection for a longer period of time, they can make the vaccine adapted to omicron available by the end of March. Furthermore, they expect to be able to produce four billion doses of vaccine in 2022, they explained.

MTI

Photo: MTI/Péter Komka