Moderna wins U.K. approval for Omicron targeting COVID-19 vaccine
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The U.K. government announced on Monday that its drug regulator, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), approved the redesigned booster vaccine developed by Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) that targets the original COVID-19 strain as well as the new Omicron variant.

Each dose of the vaccine contains 25 micrograms to target the original virus strain and the other half for the Omicron.
The approval follows the recommendation of the governmentâs independent expert scientific advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines.
The decision was based on trial data which indicated that the bivalent vaccine led to a strong immune response against both Omicron (BA.1) and the original 2020 strain.
However, citing an exploratory analysis, the regulator noted that the booster shot named Spikevax bivalent Original/Omicron was found to have a good immune response against Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5
Read: Disclosing new clinical data for its updated COVID-19 shot, Moderna (MRNA) announced in July that the bivalent vaccine outperformed the current vaccine against the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5.