Moderna announced new data on Wednesday suggesting a new version of its COVID-19 vaccine will offer superior protection to its original formulation of shots, based on studying antibodies generated by their new boosters in blood samples of trial participants. The company said in a release that it plans to submit its data to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks. If the FDA signs off, doses of the updated vaccine and boosters could be ready to ship "as early as August." Moderna's announcement comes ahead of a meeting of the regulator's outside vaccine advisers, scheduled for later this month, that will weigh key decisions around potential changes to COVID-19 boosters that may be administered this fall.
Moderna's data comes from testing a 50 microgram "bivalent" version of its vaccine. Unlike the current "monovalent" version of the vaccine, which was designed to target the original "ancestral" strain of the virus, Moderna's new booster doses will add in a version of its vaccine targeted to the Omicron variant.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech also say they are testing new versions of their COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA has asked to see those results ahead of the meeting of FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) later this month.
But, federal health officials have said they hope a bivalent approach might offer broader protection. The mix of vaccines might guard against not just Omicron but also future variants of concern that are expected to drive a fall and winter wave of infections.
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