pharmaphorum August 15, 2022
Phil Taylor

The UK has become the first country in the world to authorise an updated COVID-19 booster vaccine directed at the Omicron variant, giving a green light to Moderna’s mRNA-1273.214 shot.

The new vaccine is an updated version of Moderna’s widely-use Spikevax vaccine, which includes sequences from the original Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2, as well as from the Omicron BA.1 subvariant.

While BA.1 has been displaced by subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the new vaccine retains activity against the newer strains, so could have “an important role to play in protecting people in the UK from COVID-19 as we enter the winter months,” according to Moderna’s chief executive Stéphane Bancel.

The new version – dubbed Spikevax Bivalent Original/Omicron – has been given...

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