Global vaccine makers have announced efforts to upgrade their COVID-19 vaccines against Omicron, the mutated variant of the coronavirus presently spreading to an increasing number of countries around the world. And Chinese vaccine producers are not falling behind.

CanSino Biologics, a Chinese pharmaceutical company that developed single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, said on November 28 that it is paying close attention to Omicron and has dived into the process of data collection and analysis of the variant. CanSino is confident that it will develop a new vaccine for the variant in the shortest period of time by leveraging its Adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine technology platform and mRNA technology platform,  a company representative said.

Moreover, Sinovac Biotech, a major vaccine producer in China, said on November 27 that it is also working to collect and obtain information and samples specific to the mutant virus with their global partner network. The Chinese biopharmaceutical company said that it is in the process of researching the variant's influence on its inactivated vaccine and evaluating the necessity for developing a vaccine against Omicron as soon as possible. It said that its technology and mass-production capacity will enable it to fast-track the manufacture of the new vaccine if demanded. 

Although little information is currently available about the new and more contagious variant, Zhong Nanshan, China's top respiratory expert, warned that it may pose more challenges to the work of preventing and controlling the pandemic.

Zhong made the remarks at a forum on November 28, noting that vaccination is certainly an efficient way to prevent the virus from spreading.  

Apart from the Chinese vaccine makers, global pharmaceutical companies have given audacious time frames for new vaccine development. Pfizer-BioNTech said on November 26 that it needed a maximum of two weeks to know whether a tweak to its vaccine was necessary as more data on the variant was being collected. 

"We expect more data from the laboratory tests in two weeks at the latest. These data will provide more information about whether B.1.1.529 could be an escape variant that may require an adjustment of our vaccine if the variant spreads globally," Reuters reported, citing a statement from Pfizer-BioNTech on Saturday. 

Escape variants are those that elude the targeted immune response brought about by the vaccination. Pfizer-BioNTech said that it will be able to manufacture and distribute an upgraded version of its COVID-19 vaccine in approximately 100 days if the Omicron variant is found to be resistant to its current vaccine. 

Besides Pfizer-BioNTech, other mRNA-based vaccine producers are researching the efficacy of their products.

Johnson & Johnson confirmed on Friday that it is testing the effectiveness of its vaccines against the new variant to assess whether updates will be required. 

Moderna said in a statement that it is testing three existing COVID-19 vaccine booster candidates against the Omicron variant, and that it would develop a new variant-specific booster against it. 

AstraZeneca, the company that supplies both COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, said it was hopeful its antibody cocktail against COVID-19 would retain efficacy against Omicron and was also examining whether the variant was resistant to its vaccine.