Human data are only available for the companies’ boosters targeted to BA.1. What sort of data have the companies collected? Because they contain a lower dose of mRNA, the shots are meant to be used as boosters only, and not in people who were never vaccinated. Half of the mRNA codes for the spike protein of the ancestral virus strain that emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, which is also in the original shots the other half codes for the spike protein in BA.1 or the one in BA.4 and BA.5, which have identical spikes. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration and Moderna make their vaccines from messenger RNA (mRNA) coding for the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. What do the new boosters contain?Ī bit of the old and a bit of the new. Here are some of the questions surrounding this new generation of vaccines. The data on the updated boosters are limited, however, and the impact they will have if greenlit is unclear. (Pfizer and BioNTech have also submitted the data to EMA the European Union could first approve a BA.1-based booster and switch to BA.4/BA.5 vaccines later.) President Joe Biden’s administration has already placed an order for 170 million doses of such vaccines. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asked manufacturers to develop a booster specifically targeting those two subvariants, and last week, both Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration said they have submitted data about their BA.4/BA.5 vaccines to FDA.
This week, after Science went to press, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) was set to review applications for Moderna’s BA.1 vaccine and another from the Pfizer-BioNTech collaboration.īut BA.1 is no longer circulating the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants eclipsed it in the spring. The United Kingdom has already authorized a shot produced by vaccinemaker Moderna against the Omicron subvariant BA.1 and may start using it soon.
Boosters reformulated to protect against the Omicron variant, which has dominated globally since early this year, may get deployed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as early as this month. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Vaccine Practices is scheduled to discuss recommendations for who should receive the vaccines and when at their meeting on 1–2 September.įor the first time since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines look set to receive an update. Food and Drug Administration announced today it has granted an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated booster vaccines, which target the BA.4/BA.5 coronavirus subvariants.
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