British regulators on Monday approved the country’s first COVID-19 booster vaccine to target two coronavirus variants, the original virus and the Omicron variant.
Half of each dose of the vaccine, or 25 micrograms, will target the original version, and the other half will target Omicron. In clinical trials, the vaccine, an updated version of Moderna’s original COVID vaccine, produced a good immune response to these two variants as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in adults, the researchers found. .
Dr June Raine, chief executive of Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said she was pleased that the new booster vaccine met regulatory standards for safety, quality and effectiveness. This decision was endorsed by the UK’s independent expert scientific advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicine.
Dr. Raine said, “The first generation of COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK provides significant protection against the disease and saves lives.” “What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a fast tool in our arsenal to help protect us from this disease as the virus continues to evolve.”
British regulators said side effects were the same as those seen for the original Moderna booster dose and were generally mild, with no serious safety concerns.
The emergence of highly infectious Omicron subvariants this spring appeared to reduce protection against Covid hospitalizations by Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna Vaccines, with more vaccinated people hospitalized with Covid than they did in the winter. K Omicron was during the wave. But booster shots have raised people’s levels of protection, scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month. The CDC recommends that people get a booster shot as soon as they are eligible.
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