Moderna says its bivalent COVID booster that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants sparks a better antibody response against those strains than its original booster shot.
The Cambridge-based biotech on Monday announced that both of its bivalent omicron-targeting booster candidates perform better compared to a booster dose of its prototype vaccine against the BA.4 and BA.5 strains.
Also, both of Moderna’s updated bivalent boosters showed antibody response against BQ.1.1, an emerging threat globally.
“We are pleased to see that both of our bivalent booster vaccine candidates offer superior protection against Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variants compared to our original booster, which is encouraging given COVID-19 remains a leading cause of hospitalization and death globally,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement.
“In addition, the superior response against Omicron persisted for at least three months after the mRNA-1273.214 booster (the BA.1 bivalent vaccine),” Bancel added. “Our bivalent boosters also show, in research assays, neutralizing activity against BQ.1.1, an increasingly dominant emerging variant, confirming that updated vaccines have the potential to offer protection as the virus continues to evolve rapidly to escape our immunity.”
BA.5 remains the dominant variant across New England, representing 32.2% of new cases, according to the latest CDC variant update. But both BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are quickly rising, with BQ.1 representing 24.6% of new cases and BQ.1.1 representing 15.6% of new cases.
In the new data from Moderna’s Phase 2/3 study, a bivalent booster dose that targets BA.4 and BA.5 sparked a superior neutralizing antibody response against those variants when compared to a booster dose of the original booster.
The antibody responses against BA.4 and BA.5 were on average 15.1-fold higher compared with the original Moderna booster. For participants without prior infection, the antibody response jumped 26.4 times. For those who had been infected, the antibody response increased 9.8 times.
Both bivalent vaccines showed robust neutralizing activity against BQ.1.1, despite a 5-fold drop compared to BA.4 and BA.5.
This announcement from Moderna comes after Pfizer also recently said its omicron-adapted bivalent booster triggers better protection against BA.4 and BA.5 than its original vaccine.
“As we head into the holiday season, we hope these updated data will encourage people to seek out a COVID-19 bivalent booster as soon as they are eligible in order to maintain high levels of protection against the widely circulating Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. “These updated data also provide confidence in the adaptability of our mRNA platform and our ability to rapidly update the vaccine to match the most prevalent strains each season.”
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Health & Fitness News Click Here
