Ralf Reinert, Vice President of its vaccine team, offers some encouraging comments on the Omicron covid variant in a Bloomberg interview, citing that he doesn’t expect a significant drop against the new strain.

He added that it could take up to two to three weeks to know if the vaccine will be effective against the omicron variant.

Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline Plc said its COVID-19 antibody treatment appears effective against the variant in early testing, per Bloomberg.

The drugmaker said in a statement: “Lab tests of the mutations found in the variant showed the drug is still active against the virus.”

Market implications

S&P 500 futures gain 0.50% on the day, pausing the advance amid risk-off trading in the European indices.