The University of Oxford and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca have begun work on developing a special version of their vaccine against the new coronavirus strain - Omicron, reports The Financial Times.
"Together with the University of Oxford, we have taken preliminary steps to produce a variant vaccine against Omicron, should it be needed," AstraZeneca said.
According to Sandford Douglas, head of the research team at Oxford, adenovirus-based vaccines could in principle be used to respond more quickly to any new strain than previously thought. "[They] have really important advantages, especially where the biggest challenges are demand and logistics," Douglas added.
Researchers believe they can develop a modification of the vaccine, if necessary, within 100 days.
Earlier, the head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Emery Cook told the publication that the effectiveness of existing vaccines against coronavirus has apparently decreased with the emergence of the strain "Omicron". However, the decision on whether vaccines against it are needed will be made when there is "sufficient scientific evidence" that existing vaccines do not work.
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