BioNTech and Pfizer announce positive result in pre-clinical trial for Covid-19 vaccine

One of the Covid-19 vaccine candidates being developed by German outfit BioNTech and Pfizer succeeded in pre-clinical challenge trials.

A trial of BNT162b2 on rhesus macaques, whose immune system is very similar to that of humans, generated "strong anti-viral effects" when challenged with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

BNT162b2 is a so-called nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) vaccine designed to attack the SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein spike which allows the virus to infect human cells and thus replicate itself inside the body.

The vaccine prevented lung infection in all of the challenged macaques with no RNA detectable in the lower respiratory tract of the immunised and challenged animals.

The noses of the macaques were also cleared of viral RNA within three days from inoculation.

According to the two firms, the vaccine candidate had successfully induced neutralising antibodies when tested in mice, and strong antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in both mice and macaques.

As of 1311 BST, shares of BioNTech were trading 6.89% higher to $63.95 and those of Pfizer by 1.36% to $36.42.