BioNTech says it can produce new vaccine for Covid variant in 6 weeks
Chief Ugur Sahin expects existing shot to be effective but it can be tweaked if needed
Chief Ugur Sahin expects existing shot to be effective but it can be tweaked if needed
Sahin, BioNTech’s CEO said he thought the company’s existing vax developed with Pfizer, would still be effective against the new variant.
If not, “the beauty of the messenger mRNA technology is we can directly start to engineer a vaccine that completely mimics this new mutation and we could manufacture a new vaccine within six weeks,” he said.
Experts have said they do not expect the mutations from the new strain, known as B.1.1.7, to interfere with the effectiveness of existing vaccines. 
The speed of the rollout of a new shot would then depend on how long regulators took to authorise the new formulation, Dr Sahin and Dr Tureci said.
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