The EU’s drug oversight agency said Tuesday it is evaluating Moderna’s Covid-19 booster jab for a new strain of the Omicron variant amid growing fears of a winter wave of infections.
If approved, the adapted Spikevax shot will be second in the 27-nation block’s toolbox for combating highly infectious BA.4 and BA.5 type variants.
The European Medicines Agency said it had “started evaluating applications for approval of indicated versions of Spikevax”, targeting both the original Covid-19 strain and BA.4 and 5 types.
No word on when the booster approval will take place.
Two weeks ago, Amsterdam-based regulators approved Pfizer/BioNTech’s bivalent vaccine against Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 strains.
In early September, he supported Pfizer and Moderna’s jabs targeting the BA.1 type.
The United Kingdom, Canada and the United States also approve anti-Omicron jabs.
The original Covid vaccine, which appeared almost two years ago, offers some protection against new variants, but there is a race to create jabs that specifically target the milder and more contagious Omicron strain. it is continuing.
While previous “concerned variants” such as Alpha and Delta eventually disappeared, Omicron and its variants dominated throughout 2022.
BA.4 and BA.5 in particular have helped drive new cases of the disease in Europe and the United States in recent months.
The EMA warned last week that the pandemic was “still in progress” although death rates were declining, urging countries to roll out booster programs ahead of the winter when cases are expected to rise.
jhe/dk/gil
https://www.expatica.com/nl/general/eu-assessing-modernas-omicron-jab-330955/ EU evaluates Moderna’s Omicron jab
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