Moderna Inc announced on Wednesday that a mid-stage trial of a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, which is specially engineered to target the Omicron coronavirus strain, has begun, a day after competitor Pfizer Inc announced a similar experiment.
While a third dose of the company’s original coronavirus vaccine increased neutralising antibodies against the variation at the lower dose, levels of the antibodies fell six months after the booster dose was given, according to the company.
Neutralizing antibodies, on the other hand, were found in all of the subjects, according to Moderna.
While studies have shown that Omicron causes a milder COVID-19 than earlier waves, the variety has swiftly become dominant in many regions of the world, pushing up infection rates and putting growing pressure on the healthcare systems.
The variation is now responsible for 99.9% of COVID-19 cases in the United States.
On Tuesday, Pfizer and BioNTech began a clinical trial to evaluate a new version of their vaccine that is specially customised to the Omicron type.
Moderna said that it would test its Omicron-specific booster in adults aged 18 and up.
The booster would be tested in people who only received the two-dose primary series of Moderna’s original vaccination, mRNA-1273, as well as people who received both the primary series and a booster dose of the same vaccine, according to the company.
Moderna intends to enrol roughly 300 people in each of the two study groups.
Three trials headed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States have found that a third dosage of an mRNA vaccine, such as those produced by Pfizer and Moderna, is critical in combating the Omicron form.
Some nations have already begun to offer additional booster doses, however a recent Israeli study found that while a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine increased antibody levels, they were not high enough to prevent an Omicron infection.
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