Pharmaceutical companies announce updated Covid-19 vaccines to combat new super variant

Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech. Photo: AFP/TTXVN

Moderna could start clinical trials to see how effective its vaccine is against the Omicron variant within 60 days.

Meanwhile, Pfizer can adjust its vaccine within 6 weeks if necessary and will release the product within 100 days if needed.

In two weeks, BioNTech (Pfizer's German partner) will have lab data to verify whether Omicron is indeed the variant capable of evading the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson also said it will test the effectiveness of its vaccine with the new variant.

Although this variant has not appeared in the US, it has been present in many African and European countries, making US officials highly alert.

Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: AFP/TTXVN

In Russia, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), told RT that the Sputnik V vaccine could be quickly adapted if necessary. “We really believe that Sputnik V can be the most effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 variants,” Dmitriev added. He also stressed the importance of cooperation in vaccine production, especially the possibility of combining vaccines.

The Omicron variant emerged as the Delta variant was already rampant around the world and declining in some areas. Because it is a completely new variant, there is still much that is unknown about Omicron. However, what experts know so far about Omicron is worrying, prompting an emergency meeting of the World Health Organization and many countries to ban entry to people from some African countries where the variant first emerged.

Omicron has 50 mutations, 32 of which are in the spike protein, making it completely different from the original virus. Scientists call it an unusual mutation cluster as Omicron has the most dangerous mutations of all the variants so far.