Pfizer, Moderna's vaccines effective against COVID-19 variants first found in India: Study

A new research carried out by US scientists revealed that the Pfizer and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines remain effective against the two coronavirus variants first identified in India. According to CNN, the research is yet to be peer-reviewed and it is based on lab experiments involving cell cultures. The pre-print paper said that the B.1.617 and B.1.618 variants seem to be partially resistant to the antibodies elicited by vaccination. 

In the paper, the New York University researchers wrote, “Thus, there is a good reason to believe that vaccinated individuals will remain protected against the B.1.617 and B.1.618 variants”. However, they added that more research is needed to determine just how effective the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are against those variants in the real world. 

The research involved serum samples collected from eight people who recovered from COVID-19, six people fully vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and three people fully vaccinated with Moderna’s vaccine. The scientists then analysed in lab experiments how the serum samples neutralised lentiviruses, a type of retrovirus, equipped with the same mutations as the B.1.617 and B.1.618 coronavirus variants. 

‘Current vaccines will provide protection’ 

The researchers found that some decreases in neutralisation, but overall, antibodies from people who had been vaccinated appeared to work “well above” the serum from people who had recovered from COVID-19 caused by earlier versions of the coronavirus. They further even examined how Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail therapy, called REGN-COV2, worked against the lentiviruses with B.1.617 and B.1.618 mutations and found that both appeared to be “partially resistant” to the therapy. 

The researchers wrote, “Our results lend confidence that current vaccines will provide protection against variants identified to date. However, the results do not preclude the possibility that variants that are more resistant to current vaccines will emerge”. 

They added, “The findings highlight the importance of wide-spread adoption of vaccination which will both protect individuals from disease, decrease virus spread and slow the emergence of novel variants”. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Indian Union health ministry placed the total number of COVID-19 cases in India at 2,49,65,463 and the death toll at 2,74,390. The ministry said there are 35,16,997 active cases, while 2,11,74,076 people have so far recovered from the infection. The case fatality rate stands at 1.10 per cent. The number of active cases stands at 35,16,997, accounting for 14.09 per cent of the total infections. The national recovery rate has improved to 84.81 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

(With inputs from ANI)