Covid-19: a UK-approved version of the Moderna vaccine against Omicron

The UK Medicines Agency announced on Monday that it had approved a new generation of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine targeting the Omicron variant, a world first, the laboratory said. This version of the vaccine consists of a booster shot called “bivalent‘, which targets half of the original virus strain and half of the omicron variant, and ‘causes a strong immune responseagainst both, including Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, the MHRA said in a statement.

She “was approved by the MHRA for adult booster doses, which concluded that it met the UK regulator’s safety, quality and efficacy standards‘ the drug agency added. The reported side effects aretypically low» and similar to those observed for the original sera is reported.

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“This bivalent vaccine gives us a sharper tool in our toolbox to protect against this disease as the virus continues to evolve.‘ underscored MHRA Director June Raine in a press release.

For his part, the general manager of Moderna Stéphane Bancel underlined “the important role“what can that play”new generationa vaccine to protect against Covid-19. He noted that the UK became the first country to approve a bivalent vaccine partially targeting Omicron, the variant most prevalent in Europe.

According to the WHO, the pandemic is “far from over”.

Last week, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that it is targeting approval as early as the fall of a Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine targeting two subvariants of the rapidly spreading Omicron strain, BA.4 and BA.5.

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While vaccinations have helped reduce hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19, which first emerged in China in late 2019, current injections are mainly targeting earlier strains of the disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in July that the pandemic “not over yetdue to the proliferation of Omicron subvariants, the lifting of health restrictions, and the decline in testing. Covid cases rose globally in late spring and early summer, fueled by newer variants, but have since leveled off in Europe.

European countries are now beginning to look to autumn and winter when cases are expected to rise again. The UK is one of the worst-hit countries in Europe by the pandemic, with nearly 180,000 deaths. While mortality has plummeted thanks to vaccination, the country regularly experiences major waves of contamination but was one of the first in Europe to lift all restrictions last winter.

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