Moderna raises hopes of new once-a-year jab against Covid
MODERNA’S new Covid vaccination is five times better at boosting antibodies than its original jab, results show, raising hopes that it would be needed just once a year.
The US firm said early trials showed that the next generation jab produced 9,500 units of antibody in vaccinated individuals compared to a maximum of 1,800 units with an original booster jab.
The vaccine includes protection against both the original Wuhan strain and omicron but experts hope the newer jabs will also offer protection against new variants that might emerge.
Dr Paul Burton, Moderna’s chief medical officer, said the new vaccine can boost antibodies to such high levels that a booster may only be needed annually.
Dr Burton said: “I think for the first time we could really be looking at that potential for just once-yearly boosting because we can get people to such a high (antibody) level that it will just take longer to decay.”
Moderna is submitting the new vaccine to regulators and it would need to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation before it could be administered in Britain.
The company said it was so confident the vaccine would show results that it had started production earlier in the year and “very large supplies” would be available by the end of the summer.
Other firms are also working on vaccines that more specifically target omicron after the variant was found to evade some of the protection offered by the first round of jabs.
Currently only vulnerable adults and frontline health and social care workers will be offered a jab in the autumn.
The UK Health Security Agency said the current plan was to use the existing vaccines but if variant vaccines were available and approved in time for the general rollout they would be considered.
Commenting on the results, Stephen Evans, professor of Pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “There is little doubt that these data from a randomised trial are very encouraging.
“Using different strains of virus in a single vaccine is very familiar in flu vaccines to try and provide continuing protection when a virus is changing its characteristics, as is happening with SARS-COV-2.”