The vaccine is the first to combine the original vaccine with a new version that targets Omicron
ublic-health experts have long warned that a new vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus might be needed—especially now that the Omicron variant and its many subvariants are causing the vast majority of new COVID-19 cases around the world.
There may soon be one. Moderna, which makes one of the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , announced results from its study of a new vaccine the company’s scientists developed that targets both the original virus strain as well as Omicron.
“We believe the data unequivocally show that the bivalent vaccine is significantly superior in producing neutralizing protection,” Moderna president Dr. Stephen Hoge said during a conference call announcing the results. “To more accurately reflect the circulating strain [of the virus], the data clearly show that it’s time to update the vaccine to improve the durability and magnitude of protection for the coming fall.
Hoge noted, however, that the data only extend to one month after the booster dose, so the company is continuing to follow the study participants to track how durable that protection is. “The real goal is to get to six or nine months of protection, which gets you through the respiratory season,” he says of the fall and winter, when viruses like influenza and coronaviruses tend to circulate more as people spend more time indoors.
The combination booster has not yet been tested in children, but Hoge said those studies will now begin, given the reassuring safety and efficacy data from the booster in adults. The FDA has not yet reviewed Moderna’s application for authorizing its original vaccine in children; the