Following the FDA's recommendation that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers continue to work on their booster products in order to counter new subvariants, Moderna's omicron-containing bivalent booster has show promising signs in clinical trials.
Clinical Trials fulfil a vital role in the production of COVID-19 vaccines (and drugs in general), and the likes of Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Janssen/J&J are pushing forward with the US government wanting the boosters to be available by the fall of this year.
After one month, trial participants who received the bivalent booster had BA.4 and BA.5 neutralizing antibodies that were 1.69 times higher than those who received the original booster, the company said. The data has been shared with regulators and submitted for peer-reviewed publication. The company is working with regulators to advance two bivalent vaccine candidates based on various market preferences. “This superior breadth and durability of immune response following a bivalent booster has now been shown in multiple phase 2/3 studies involving thousands of participants,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. Moderna’s two candidates include one expected to have demonstrated “significantly higher titers” against the BA.4/5 variants, while the other is based on the BA.4/5 strain and is being developed “consistent with recent FDA advice," the company says.
unknownx500
