-By ArdorComm News Network
July 12, 2022
Moderna Inc. announced on Monday that it was moving forward with two Omicron vaccine candidates for the fall, one of which was created to protect against the BA.1 variant and the other to protect against the BA.4 and BA.5.
Updated vaccines are being developed by vaccine producers like Moderna and rival Pfizer Inc. to combat the quickly spreading Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which have recently expanded to the United States. Moderna claimed that a variety of market preferences for jabs against the subvariants informed its choice to develop the bivalent vaccines.
The older 2020 variant and the more recent Omicron variants of the coronavirus are the two separate coronavirus variants that are targeted by bivalent vaccines. New clinical data for Moderna’s BA.1 variant-targeting mRNA-1273.214 vaccination revealed noticeably greater neutralising antibody responses against the fast-spreading BA.4 and BA.5 compared with the currently permitted booster, the firm says.
The second booster candidate being researched by the company, mRNA 1273.222, is based on the BA.4/5 strain and is being created in compliance with current guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Although the company’s BA.1 subvariant-targeting booster has improved durability and antibody response, according to Jefferies analyst Michael Yee, the original Omicron variant has already moved in the United States, and the FDA is likely to approve future BA.4/5 boosters.
Source: Reuters