American biotech firm Moderna announced on Friday its intention to develop a specific booster vaccine for the new omicron variant of covid-19, detected in South Africa and considered “worrisome” by the WHO.
“Moderna will rapidly develop a candidate vaccine for a specific booster dose for the omicron variant, “the US company said in a statement.
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The ad is part of a targeted strategy to work in specific booster doses for the variants of concern, according to Moderna.
“In 2020-2021, that already included the booster doses for the delta and beta variants,” said the laboratory, who indicated that he had “repeatedly demonstrated his ability to bring in new candidates to the clinical trials phase in 60-90 days ”.
“Since its inception, we have said that to combat the pandemic, it is imperative to be proactive in the face of the evolution of the virus ”, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said, quoted in the statement.
“The mutations of the omicron variant are worrisome and for several days we also move as quickly as possible to execute our strategy, in order to fight against this variant ”, he added.
Potentially highly contagious and multi-mutant, the new variant raises global unrest as it spreads outside of South Africa, forcing the world to progressively close its borders with southern Africa.
In Europe, Belgium detected a first case. Another was identified in Hong Kong and another in Israel, in a person who returned from Malawi.
The German laboratory BioNTech, an ally of Pfizer, has said that it is studying this variant, and expects “at the latest in two weeks” the first results of studies that will determine if it is capable of penetrating the protection of its vaccine.
It will take “several weeks” to understand the level of transmissibility and the virulence of the new variant, the WHO spokesman stressed this Friday.
For the European Medicines Agency (EMA), it is “premature” to foresee an adaptation from vaccines to the omicron variant.
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