Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been found to neutralise the Brazil variant

According to a laboratory study, Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been found to neutralise the Brazil variant.

During the study, conducted by Pfizer and BioNtech scientists, together with researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch, blood samples were used from people who had been administered the BNT162b2 vaccine. To determine the level of neutralisation produced by the vaccine, the researchers used an engineered variant of the virus, which carries the same mutations on the spike protein of the P.1 variant, which is currently spreading in Brazil.

The results within the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, conveyed that the vaccine, which has been found to neutralise the UK and South Africa variant, could neutralise the P.1 variant.

The researchers stated: “Ultimately, conclusions about vaccine-mediated protection that are extrapolated from neutralisation or t-cell data must be validated by real world evidence collected in regions where the SARS-CoV-2 variants are circulating.”