Moderna will work since January on an adaptation of its vaccine for omicron

The Moderna laboratory will begin in January to work on an adaptation of its vaccine to the omicron variant, although if the results are positive, it will be necessary to wait several months for it to be available.

The vice president of Moderna, Dan Staner, explained this Tuesday in an interview with the French radio station RTL that “clinical trials will launch early next year”, Once the end of the year holidays are over.

Staner pointed out that they have made the decision to work in “a specific vaccine“, Although he acknowledged that”it will take several months”Until it can be administered, taking into account that tests will have to be carried out to verify its effectiveness and start the manufacturing process.

Faced with the eruption of the wave caused by omicron, the “number two” of the US pharmaceutical company recalled that yesterday they presented the results of the test of their current vaccine against omicron.

He specified that the booster dose of 50 micrograms – half the amount used in each of the first two injections – increases the neutralizing antibodies to omicron 37 times. In case 100 micrograms were administered, the antibodies go up 83 times.

Staner pointed out that based on these figures, it will be the health authorities that will assess whether it is worth injecting booster doses of 100 micrograms, at least to people who are at higher risk from the coronavirus.

At the end of November, the giant Pfizer said it was going to start work on a new version of its omicron vaccine, given the possibility that current vaccines show less protection against the new variant.