Moderna says Spikevax enhanced needles can trigger higher protection for Omicron

On Monday, Moderna released early data from laboratory tests, indicating that the booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax appears to have a protective effect on the Omicron variant.
Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said that the preliminary findings are “exciting”.
But it has not yet been peer reviewed
.

Moderna is looking for different strategies to address the emerging variant of concern (VOC)-Omicron
.
In addition to testing booster shots of its existing vaccines, it is also developing multivalent candidate vaccines, called mRNA-1273.

Monday’s survey results included serum from 20 booster needle recipients, each receiving Spikevax at dose levels of 50 μg and 100 μg; mRNA-1273.
211 at dose levels of 50 μg and 100 μg; and mRNA-1273.
213 at dose level of 100 μg
.
Moderna said that the two-dose course of Spikevax produced "low" neutralizing antibodies against Omicron, but when the same vaccine was given an approved boost of 50μg, the antibodies increased 37-fold

As for its Omicron-specific booster mRNA-1273.
529, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said that the company plans to "rapidly advance" drug candidates into clinical testing
.

At the same time, the company announced the safety results of its phase II/III trial of the 100μg Spikevax booster needle
.
Moderna stated that data from 305 participants showed that the frequency and nature of systemic and local adverse events that occurred 7 days after receiving the booster vaccination was “approximately the same” as the events after two doses of the vaccine, but compared with the 50μg booster shot.

Original source:

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