Europe’s drug regulator recommended the use of two omicron-tailored vaccines developed by the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE partnership and Moderna Inc. ahead of a fresh booster program this fall across the continent.
(Bloomberg) — Europe’s drug regulator recommended the use of two omicron-tailored vaccines developed by the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE partnership and Moderna Inc. ahead of a fresh booster program this fall across the continent.
The two shots, which both target the original coronavirus and the BA.1 subvariant, can be used as boosters for fully vaccinated people aged 12 years and above, the European Medicines Agency in a statement on Thursday.
Europe Set to Approve Moderna, Pfizer Omicron-Tailored Shots
Health authorities around the world are seeking to bolster and broaden protection for people at greater risk of severe disease and death from infection by omicron variants. As the virus has mutated it has been able to sidestep existing immunity from early vaccination and infections caused by earlier strains.
The EMA said Europe wants to have a broad range of adapted vaccines that target different variants so member states “have a plurality of options to meet their needs when they design their vaccination strategies.”
The approval of the BA.1 vaccines is a “quantum leap in the fight against the pandemic,” said German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, adding that now is the optimal time to close the vaccine gap for the fall. “Now vaccines can be used that work very well against all the known virus variants.”
A formal approval and recommendation by the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, is expected later this week.
The agency is expected in the coming weeks to also issue opinions on two other bivalent vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that target the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, Stella Kyriakides, the EU health commissioner, said in a statement.
The US has already approved the two firms’ boosters targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
FDA Clears Way for Boosters Targeting Latest Covid Variants (2)
Last month the UK became the first country in the world to clear an omicron targeting shot.
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