Global hopes pinned on vaccine makers to overcome omicron variant

LONDON — As the new omicron Covid variant spreads around the world, hopes are being pinned on vaccine makers’ ability to develop effective shots against the strain.

Global market sentiment nosedived on Tuesday morning amid fears that the Covid-19 vaccine currently in use could be less effective against the new omicron variant. The strain was first identified in South Africa and designated a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization on Friday.

The sharp reversal for European and U.S. stock futures came after Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times that he expects existing vaccines to be less effective against the new variant.

Bancel told CNBC on Monday that it could take months to develop and ship a vaccine that specifically targets the omicron variant. He added that will take at least two weeks to determine how much the mutations have impacted the efficacy of the vaccines currently on the market.

The omicron variant has more than 30 mutations on the spike protein that binds to human cells. Some of the mutations are associated with higher transmission and a decrease in antibody protection, according to the WHO.

The UN health agency reiterated on Monday that there are still considerable uncertainties and unknowns regarding this variant, however.

First of all, experts don’t yet know just how transmissible the variant is and whether any increase in infections is because it can escape prior immunity or because it is more transmissible.

Secondly, there is uncertainty over how well vaccines protect against infection, transmission, severity of illness and death when it comes to the omicron. And thirdly, it is unknown whether the variant causes more severe symptoms.

The WHO has said it will take weeks to understand how the variant may affect diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

Pfizer‘s CEO Albert Bourla said the impact of omicron on its own two-dose vaccine — which was developed with German biotech BioNTech and has been widely deployed in the U.S. and Europe — remains to be seen.

“I don’t think that the result will be the vaccines don’t protect,” Bourla told CNBC on Monday, adding, “I think the result could be, which we don’t know yet, the vaccines protect less.”

Bourla said Pfizer had already begun work to manufacture a new vaccine if necessary. The company made its first DNA template on Friday, he said, the initial step in the development process of a new vaccine.

“We have made multiple times clear that we would be able to have the vaccine in less than 100 days,” Bourla said. He noted that the company was able to create vaccines for the beta and delta…