A healthcare worker prepares a syringe with Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site operated by SOMOS Community Care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Manhattan, New York City, January 29, 2020. 2021.
Mike Segar | Reuters
Moderna said on Monday of it Covid-19 booster seems to offer protection against omicrons, but the drug company will still develop a new drug specifically for the current variant skyrocketing all over the world.
In an announcement early Monday, Moderna said preliminary data from laboratory testing showed its enhanced version is currently being used in the United States and elsewhere to provide antibodies. increased to neutralize the virus. But it also found that a double dose of the booster provided more of an increase in those levels.
The news is the latest sign that booster injections are an effective way to protect against the new variant, which has fueled a rapid increase in the number of cases since it first emerged last month. .
The drug company says its now FDA-approved 50ug booster was found to increase levels of neutralizing antibodies against omicrons by 37-fold from pre-boost levels. Meanwhile, it found that a booster dose of 100ug increased neutralizing antibody levels 83-fold.
However, the company says it is still working to develop a specific omicron-enhancing drug, with the drug expected to enter clinical trials as early as 2022.
In a statement, Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel said the company’s findings should be taken as “reassurance”.
“The dramatic increase in Covid-19 cases from the omicron variant is relevant to all. However, these data … can be reassuring,” Bancel said.
However, he said: “In response to this highly transmissible variant, Moderna will continue to rapidly bring a specific omicron-enhanced candidate into clinical trials in case it becomes necessary. Future.”
“We will also continue to generate and share data about our booster strategies with public health authorities to help them make evidence-based decisions about good vaccination strategies,” he said. against SARS-CoV-2″. .
The pharmaceutical company has tested a number of different boosters with different dosages, some of which are still in clinical trials.
It says that safety data from a Phase 2/3 study of a 100ug booster dose suggest that it is “generally safe and well-tolerated.”
It indicates the frequency and nature of adverse events in general comparable to those seen after the main two-dose series but there appears to be a trend towards slightly more frequent adverse events after use a higher dose than the 50ug allowed dose.
Moderna’s news comes almost two weeks after Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 booster shot is Found to provide strong protection against omicron variation earlier this month.
The two companies say studies have found that the new variant is more adept at bypassing the immune protection provided by existing vaccines than previous strains.
However, they say the full extent of the variant’s ability to evade defenses remains unclear. Uncertainty also exists about the relationship between omicrons and severe disease.
Pfizer and BioNTech are also in the process testing the third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine in an ongoing trial of children 6 months to under 5 years old after the companies found that two doses of the drug did not seem to produce a strong enough immune response in some children.
