BioNTech’s CEO Ugur Sahin has expressed confidence that the vaccine developed jointly between his company and Pfizer will offer protection against a new variant of COVID-19 discovered in the United Kingdom that is thought to be up to 70% more contagious. That said, he stated that his confidence comes from the fact that variant’s make-up is 99% similar to the strain the vaccine is based on, but more specific studies will need to be done in order to know with certainty.