The coronavirus variant BQ.1.1 has also arrived in Austria. Studies by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer brought good news on Friday: the bivalent Omicron vaccine developed together with Biontech in Mainz apparently also helps against the new mutation, the Deutsches Ärzteblatt reported on Friday.
“The Biontech/Pfizer bivalent Covid-19 vaccine adapted to Omikron BA.4/BA.5 is also likely to protect against the BA.1.5 subline BQ.1.1, which is currently spreading in Germany. This is evident from laboratory studies of the manufacturer, reports the magazine of the German Medical Association (online edition).
In the afternoon there had been a broadcast from the pharmaceutical company. BQ.1.1 differs from BA.4/BA.5, whose spike gene is part of the current Biontech/Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccines, by three mutations in the spike protein gene (R346T, K444T and N460K).
Vaccine protection examined by American university
Pfizer had scientists at the University of Texas at Galveston investigate whether the mutation could escape the vaccine’s protection. According to the data now published, the bivalent vaccine increased the antibody concentration against BA.4/5 from 66 to 856 GMT (unit of measurement; note), ie by a factor of 13, while the original vaccine only increased from 82 to 236 (by 2.9 times ; note) scored. This confirms that the current configuration of BNT162b2 does its job better than the first corona mRNA vaccine.
For BQ.1.1, there was a GMT increase from 29 to 252 (by a factor of 8.7) after the bivalent booster versus an increase from 31 to 58 (by a factor of 1.8) with a monovalent booster. BNT162b2 (the Comirnaty mRNA vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer, note) in its current configuration is therefore better able to protect against the BQ.1.1 variant than the first vaccine. However, the protective effect could be somewhat weaker than against Omikron variants BA.4/BA.5.
Share of BQ.1 or BQ.1.1 is steadily increasing
According to the monitoring of the variants by the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) and the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), the proportion of the new mutations BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 in Germany has continuously increased in recent weeks to currently 13 to 14 percent.
Source: Krone
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