Here ’s What COVID-19 Vaccine Makers Are Doing to Fight Omicron

On Nov. 26, the World Health Organization declared Omicron the latest COVID-19 variant of concern, and vaccine makers jumped on the news. Moderna quickly announced that it was developing an Omicron-specific vaccine, while continuing to study both a higher dose of its currently authorized shot, and a combination vaccine that protects against one of the previous SARS-CoV-2 variants. BioNTech, which developed its vaccine with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, began studying whether its existing two-dose shot continues to protect against Omicron, and a company spokesperson said those results could be available in about two weeks. In the meantime, Pfizer-BioNTech are also preparing an Omicron-targeted vaccine that could take six weeks to develop, plus another several months to test—which means if needed, that vaccine could be available next spring. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech developed their COVID-19 vaccines using mRNA technology, which allowed them to quickly move from getting the right genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and inserting it into their shots to generate a robust immune response. The technology is highly adaptable and means that additional vaccines, directed against new genetic targets on the virus, such as Omicron, will take weeks rather than years. Whether a vaccine targeted directly against Omicron will be necessary, however, depends on the results of studies that pit existing vaccine-induced antibodies and ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news