LONDON: Candidates for Moderna Vaccines Inc.
against Omicron Coronavirus variants will enter clinical development in the next few weeks and the company hopes to share data with regulators around March, said CEO Stephane Bancel on Monday.
“This vaccine is complete, it must be at the clinic in the coming weeks.
We hope that in the period of march to be able to have data to be shared with the regulator to find out the next step,” said Bancel at Davos Virtual World Economic Forum on the agenda conference.
Moderna also developed a single vaccine that combines a booster dose against Covid-19 with its experimental flu shot.
Bancel said the best case scenario is a combined covid / flu vaccine will be available in the fall of 2023, at least in some countries.
“Our goal is to be able to have a single annual amplifier so we don’t have a compliance problem where people don’t want to get two to three winter shots.” Many countries have offered the third dose of Covid-19 vaccines to their citizens, especially for older individuals and those who immunocompromised, while Israel has begun to offer its fourth dose citizens.
Previously in January, CEO Moderna said people might need a fourth shot in the fall of 2022 because the efficacy of the booster against Covid-19 is likely to decrease over the next few months.
However, the Booster program has met skeptics from several disease experts whether, and how wide, additional doses must be available, including the European Union drug regulator, which has expressed doubts about the need for the fourth dose of booster.
Speaking at the same event, US infectious disease experts Anthony Fauci said there was no evidence that repeated reinforcement doses would flood the immune system.
“Providing a booster at a different time, there really is no evidence that will deter (immune response).” Fauci said the goal must have a booster that induces response to various potential variants.