World ‘better prepared’ for COVID-19 variants: BioNTech CEO

GERMANY: The world is becoming “better prepared” to deal with future variants of the coronavirus, the CEO and co-founder of German vaccine-maker BioNTech Dr Ugur Sahin said on Thursday, as the company works on an Omicron-specific shot.

“We will have to get used to the fact that we will have to live with the virus for the next 10 years,” said Dr. Sahin, whose company developed the first mRNA vaccine against the virus with US pharma giant Pfizer.

As the surge of cases due to the spread of the more transmissible Omicron variant of the virus seemed to be receding in Europe, Dr Sahin said it would not be the last virus wave.

New virus variants are inevitable “because the virus will mutate further”, he said, potentially leading to new flare-ups in cases.

But the world was “entering a phase where society is getting a better understanding on how to deal with the virus”, Dr Sahin said.

“We are always learning more and are becoming better prepared,” the BioNTech boss said.

The Marburg-based company, which has sold well over a billion doses of its vaccine against the original strain of the coronavirus, is in the process of developing an Omicron-specific shot.

– THE STRAITS TIMES