UK Okays Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine That Zaps Omicron Variant

The UK's drug regulator said on Monday, August 15, 2022, it had approved an updated Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus that targets the Omicron variant as well as the original form, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Photo Insert: The UK became the first country to approve Moderna Inc.’s Omicron-targeting COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had approved the vaccine for adult booster doses "after it was found to meet the UK regulator's standards of safety, quality and effectiveness," Channel News Asia (CNA) also reported.

Denise Roland of Wall Street Journal said the UK became the first country to approve Moderna Inc.’s Omicron-targeting COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot, ahead of a planned fall vaccination campaign to shore up immune defenses against the virus.

The so-called bivalent vaccine is directed against both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and the first Omicron variant, also known as BA.1, which drove large waves of infection over the winter.

The MHRA's chief executive June Raine said data from a clinical trial had shown it prompted a "strong immune response" against the original virus and Omicron and would provide a "sharpened tool in our armory" as the virus kept evolving.

Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement that the US biotech company was "delighted" by the decision. While vaccines have helped lower hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, which first emerged in China in late 2019, the current jabs are mainly aimed at the earlier strains of the disease.

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