The pharmaceutical company Moderna announced, this Monday (11), that it will advance with two vaccine candidates against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, one of them developed against the BA.1 variant and the other against the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
Immunization manufacturers, including Moderna and competitor Pfizer, are developing updated vaccines to combat the fast-spreading subvariants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 that have gained ground in the United States in recent weeks.
Moderna said its decision to develop ambivalent vaccines was based on differing market preferences for doses against the subvariants.
Ambivalent vaccines are developed with the aim of repelling two different variants of the coronavirus — the original 2020 variant, and new variants of Ômicron.
Moderna said new clinical data for its mRNA-1273.214 vaccine, developed to combat the BA.1 variant, showed significantly higher neutralizing antibody responses against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants compared to the current dose of authorized reinforcement.
The drugmaker’s second booster candidate, mRNA 1273.222, is based on the BA.4/5 strain and is being developed according to the latest US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance.
Source: CNN Brasil
