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covovax
Pharma News

BioNTech says vaccine likely to be effective against Indian variant

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

BioNTech SE said yesterday that the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with Pfizer should be roughly as effective against the new coronavirus variant first detected in India as it has been shown to be against the South African variant.

The company said in a statement that Ugur Sahin, Chief Executive Officer, felt encouraged by recent findings in a scientific paper based on blood analysis of vaccinated individuals, which showed that the antibodies elicited by the vaccine were able to neutralise the Indian variant.

Since the blood tests on the variant that was first detected in South Africa had shown similar results, promising real-world data on the vaccine’s effectiveness against the South African variant of about 75 per cent led him to believe that its actual effectiveness against the Indian variant “might be in the same range.”

“So far, we’ve had the chance to test our vaccine against more than 30 variants of the virus. It has proven effective against mutations so far,” Sahin said earlier, speaking on Turkish television.

He added, “We expect (our vaccine) to protect against infections by 70 to 75 per cent,” he said on TV, in what the company later said was in reference to the South African variant and not directly to the Indian variant.

Since the concerning COVID-19 variant, known as B.1.617.2, was first identified in India, it has ravaged that country and spread to at least 26 nations out of the 53 in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European region, the organisation said.

The WHO’s regional director said yesterday that COVID-19 vaccines being deployed in Europe, including the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, appear able to protect against circulating virus variants that have caused concern because they are more easily transmitted.

Sahin was speaking with Turkish Health Minister Fehrettin Koca, who separately said the country recorded less than 10,000 daily new coronavirus cases for the first time since 1st March.

Turkey, which briefly was second globally last month in new infections, is using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as well as China’s Sinovac Biotech shot in its vaccination programme.

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astrazeneca
Covid News and UpdatesNational & International NewsPharma News

AstraZeneca to modify Covishield against South Africa variant

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

AstraZeneca and University of Oxford are working on modification of the existing Covid-19 vaccine Covishield in India to become effective against the South African coronavirus.

AstraZeneca’s Austria country manager, Sarah Walters said in an interview that the vaccine is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

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coronavirus variants
Covid News and UpdatesNational & International News

807 UK variant, 47 South African, 1 Brazilian variant found in India

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday announced that 807 cases of UK variant, 47 cases of South African variant and 1 of Brazil variant have been found in India.

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Covid News and Updates

Double Mutant Variant in India – MoHFW

by Medically Speaking Team
written by Medically Speaking Team


New Delhi- The INSACOG is Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on genomic that was established by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare last year on December 02.Since then its carrying out genome sequencing and analysis of circulating COVID-19 viruses, and correlating epidemiological trends with genomic variants.

“Since INSACOG initiated its work, 771 variants of concerns (VOCs) have been detected in a total of 10787 positive samples shared by States/UTs. These include 736 samples positive for viruses of the UK (B.1.1.7) lineage. 34 samples were found positive for viruses of the South African (B.1.351) lineage. 1 sample was found positive for viruses of the Brazilian (P.1) lineage. The samples with these VOCs have been identified in 18 States of the country.” said the statement by INSACOG

“Genome sequencing and analysis have been carried out on samples from arriving international travelers, contacts of those positive for VOC and community samples from most of the States at INSACOG partner laboratories which are 10 in number.” INSACOG’s statement reads

“The analysis of samples from Maharashtra has revealed that compared to December 2020, there has been an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations. Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity. These mutations have been found in about 15-20% of samples and do not match any previously catalogued VOCs. These have been categorized as VOCs but require the same epidemiological and public health response of “increased testing, comprehensive tracking of close contacts, prompt isolation of positive cases & contacts as well as treatment as per National Treatment Protocol” by the States/UTs.”

“From Kerala 2032 samples (from all 14 districts) have been sequenced. The N440K variant that is associated with immune escape has been found in 123 samples from 11 districts. This variant was earlier found in 33% of samples from Andhra Pradesh, and in 53 of 104 samples from Telangana. This variant has also been reported from 16 other countries including UK, Denmark, Singapore, Japan and Australia. As of now these can be at best said to be variant under investigation.” INSACOG in a statement

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covid mutation
Covid News and Updates

Sequencing in Sars-Cov2 may help monitor evolution of mutants: Study

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma

The last month of the year 2020 began with worrying news regarding new variants of SARS-CoV-2 that show increased transmissibility, first identified in the UK and S. Africa. Recent reports from South Africa mention concerns regarding lineage B.1.351 which has a mutation in the RBD of the Spike protein (N501Y) which may be associated with faster transmission and possible adverse illness in young and healthy individuals.

A study conducted on 200 samples identified 4 novel genetic variants and 89 variants that were exclusive to Kerala and not present in other parts of the country.

The mutation landscape of SARS-CoV-2 has been under constant global scrutiny to understand the effect of these changes on the infectivity and antigenicity of the virus. While most mutations are of little to no consequence, sometimes the virus acquires a mutation that gives it an advantage over other strains. The Spike protein is used by the virus to enter human cells via the ACE2 receptor. Thus, Spike mutations can potentially facilitate better affinity or binding and enable easier entry into the host cell, as seen in the case of the D614G mutation described in the preceding section. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) in the spike protein is the most variable part of the coronavirus genome. Mutations can putatively also render the virus resistant to neutralization by host antibodies and thus need to be identified and monitored for the efficacy of antibody therapeutics.

Genomic studies can aid in the identification of the origin of the virus and possible sources of transmission to humans. Zoonoses are infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans and can evolve to become efficiently transmissible human-to-human infections such as malaria, SARS, HIV, pandemic influenzas and, most recently, COVID-19. Transmission of the causative pathogens from animals to humans and livestock can be via many routes such as infected meat (wet markets, wildlife trade, contaminated feed), direct contact with the pathogen (carcasses, fresh meat), contamination of water and produce, as well as air-borne and vector-borne (mosquitoes, ticks, rodents) routes.

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Covid News and Updates

Study reveals Covid-19 vaccines, antibodies less effective against new variants

by Vaishali Sharma
written by Vaishali Sharma
mental health

According to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, the present Covid-19 antibodies and vaccines developed so far have been may be less effective against the new variants of UK, Brazil and South Africa, as these can evade the antibodies that work against the original virus.

The researchers said there is a wide variation in how much antibody a person produces in response to vaccination or natural infection. According to the scientists, including those from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in the US, more of antibodies produced in response to vaccination or natural infection, or purifies antibodies intended for use as drugs, is needed to neutralize these varieties, compared to the levels needed to counter the original virus lineage from Wuhan, China.

Michael S. Diamond, a senior author from the Washington University School of Medicine said, “We’re concerned that people whom we’d expect to have a protective level of have a protective level of antibodies because they have had Covid-19 or been vaccinated against it, might not be protected against the new variants. Some people produce very high levels, and they would still likely be protected against the new worrisome variants. But some people, especially older and immunocompromised people, may not take such high levels of antibodies.”

According to the researchers, people infected with coronavirus generate the most protective antibodies against the virus spike protein which enable it to enter host cells.

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