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Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Protects Against Omicron
Preliminary trial data shows that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine booster neutralized antibody levels against Omicron nearly 37-fold compared to pre-boost levels.
Moderna recently announced that its COVID-19 vaccine booster increased neutralizing activity levels against the Omicron variant.
The currently authorized 50-microgram booster of mRNA-1273 increased neutralizing antibody levels nearly 37-fold compared to pre-boost levels, and a 100-microgram dose of the booster increased levels approximately 83-fold compared to pre-boost levels.
“To respond to this highly transmissible variant, Moderna will continue to rapidly advance an Omicron-specific booster candidate into clinical testing in case it becomes necessary in the future," Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in the announcement.
“We will also continue to generate and share data across our booster strategies with public health authorities to help them make evidence-based decisions on the best vaccination strategies against SARS-CoV-2,” Bancel continued.
Moderna’s data includes sera from 20 mRNA-1273 booster recipients at the 50-microgram and 100-microgram dose levels, multivalent candidate mRNA-1273.211 at the same dosage levels, respectively, and multivalent candidate mRNA-1273.213 at the 100 microgram dose level.
All groups in the trials had low neutralizing antibody levels in the Omicron PsVNT assay before boosting. At Day 29 post-boost, the 50 microgram booster of mRNA-1273 increased neutralizing geometric mean titers (GMT) against the variant to 850.
And at Day 29 post-boost, a 100 microgram dose booster of the vaccine increased neutralizing GMT to 2228.
In October, FDA approved Moderna’s booster dose at the 50 microgram dose level for individuals 65 years of age and older and individuals aged 18 to 64 who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 or who have frequent exposure to the virus.
And one month later, the CDC recommended COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to include all adults who received an FDA-approved vaccine series at least two months earlier.
Due to the rapid pace of Omicron expansion and the increased complexity of deploying a new vaccine, Moderna will focus its efforts to address Omicron on the mRNA-1273 booster continuing into 2022.
The company will continue to develop an Omicron-specific variant vaccine, mRNA-1273.529, which will advance into clinical trials early next year and enter its multivalent booster program.
