Stephane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna pharma company, announced on Monday that they are working on an Omicron-specific booster vaccine, which is about to start on clinical trials, with a chance to be ready by autumn.
RELATED:
US Hospitals Strained With Omicron Patients, Staffing Shortage
“We are discussing with public health leaders around the world to decide what we think is the best strategy for the potential booster for the fall of 2022. We believe it will contain omicron,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
Bancel says they are studying the shots to see if they have any other component to strike the virus. “We need to be careful to try to stay ahead of a virus and not behind the virus,” he stressed.
Moderna has already signed agreements with the United Kingdom, South Korea and Switzerland with upfront payments worth $18.5 billion of shots orders for this fall. “There are discussions ongoing on a daily basis. We want to be ready with the best product possible for the fall of ’22,” the CEO of Moderna said on Monday.
According to researches from the U.K. Health Security Agency, the booster shoots represent an efficiency up to 75 percent of protection against Omicron infection.
The study reveals Moderna and Pfizer, on the other hand, only show a 10 percent of effectiveness at preventing symptomatic infection 20 weeks after the second dose.
The wave of infection due to omicron made it possible to reach dozens of mutations that allow it to avoid the immune protection induced by the original shots.