EMA says protection against original Omicron strain should be included in vaccine boosters
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While the U.S. FDA has stated that future COVID-19 booster shots should specifically include protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, the European Medicines Agency is not as convinced.
In a press briefing Thursday, EMA Head of Anti-infectives and Vaccines Marco Cavaleri, expressed concern that vaccines against BA.4 and BA.5 only recently entered the clinic and will take more time to become available compared to vaccines against the original Omicron strain.
"That's why for the time being we still think that it's very good to keep all options open and to not exclude any of these candidates from any potential approval," he said, Reuters reported.
Cavaleri added that it's hard to predict what variant or subvariants will be dominant in the fall when the new boosters are expected to be administered.
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) are developing new vaccines specifically tailored against the original Omicron variant, yet studies show they are not as effective against BA.4 and BA.5 compared to BA.1.
Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) said it will accelerate its research focus on the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.