Britain has become the first country to approve a dual vaccine that tackles both the original COVID virus and the newer Omicron variant, and which will now form part of the UK’s autumn booster campaign.
Moderna thinks 13m doses of its new vaccine will be available this year, but 26m people are eligible for some form of booster.
Health officials say people should take whichever booster they are offered as all jabs provide protection, reports BBC News.
The original vaccines used in the pandemic were designed to train the body to fight the first form of the virus which emerged in Wuhan, in China, at the end of 2019.
The COVID virus has since mutated substantially, with a stream of new variants emerging that can dodge some immune defences. They have caused large surges in cases worldwide.
The original vaccines still provide strong protection against becoming severely ill or dying, but companies are tweaking them to match the virus as it evolves.
‘Sharpened tool’
Moderna's latest vaccine, called Spikevax, targets both the original strain and the first Omicron variant (BA.1), which emerged last winter. It is known as a bivalent vaccine as it takes aim at two forms of COVID.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has given the vaccine approval for use in adults.
Dr June Raine, the regulator’s chief executive, said: “What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve.”
Experiments on 437 people showed the updated vaccine was safe and gave better immune protection against newer variants.
Levels of antibodies that were able to stick to and disable Omicron (BA.1) were 1.7 times higher in people given the new vaccine. Tests against more recent Omicron variants (BA.4 and BA.5), which are causing the UK’s current wave, also showed higher levels of protection with the updated vaccine.
However, it is far from clear what that means in terms of preventing someone from becoming seriously ill.
Additionally, it is uncertain what variants we will be facing in the coming months and exactly how well the updated vaccine will perform against them.
Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive officer of Moderna, said he was “delighted” the vaccine had been approved.
“This represents the first authorisation of an Omicron-containing bivalent vaccine; this bivalent vaccine has an important role to play in protecting people in the UK from COVID-19 as we enter winter,” he said.
Moderna is not the only company updating its vaccines. Pfizer has also been developing vaccines that can target Omicron. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, however, is not being updated.
Study details
Moderna Bivalent Booster Candidate Demonstrates Superior Antibody Response Against Omicron
A 50-µg booster dose of the candidate exhibited a superior neutralising antibody response against the Omicron variant one month after administration relative to the original mRNA-1273 vaccine booster. The bivalent booster raised neutralising geometric mean titers (GMT) against Omicron approximately eight-fold above baseline levels.
The booster candidate met all pre-specified endpoints of the Phase II/III clinical trial, including superiority to the Spikevax booster. The candidate was generally well-tolerated in the 437 study participants, who had side effects comparable to a booster dose of mRNA-1273.
Among seronegative participants one month after administration, the neutralizsing GMT against ancestral SARS-CoV-2 for mRNA-1273.214 was 5977, compared to a GMT of 5649 for mRNA-1273. Among Omicron-specific variants, mRNA-1273.214 had a GMT of 2372 and mRNA-1273 a GMT of 1473. Additionally, binding antibody titers were found to be significantly higher against all other variants of concern for mRNA-1273.214 relative to mRNA-1273.
BBC article – UK first country to approve dual-strain COVID vaccine (Open access)
Moderna study details (Open access)
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Moderna/Pfizer update two vaccines against newer variants
Pfizer and Moderna fare better against variants of concern – Dutch research
4th jab can give higher immunity than initial booster – Cov-Boost trial