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BioNTech and Pfizer Inc together produced one of the first vaccines against COVID-19, with well over 2 billion doses already given to protect people around the world.

There are concerns that the vaccines might not work as well against the Omicron variant which emerged last month.

"We anticipate that infected people who have been vaccinated will still be protected against severe disease," Sahin said in an interview during the Reuters Next conference on Friday (December 3).

The BioNTech CEO, whose work until the emergence of the COVID-19 coronavirus in 2020 was focused on cancer, said that the new variant had emerged sooner than he had anticipated."

Sahin also said that mutations in the virus meant it was more likely that annual vaccinations would be the norm, as is the case with seasonal flu, and that a new vaccine would be needed against COVID-19, although it was not yet clear when.