A vial and a medical syringe are displayed in front of the logos of the US Food and Drug Administration and Moderna biotechnology company.
Pavlo Gonchar | Light Rocket | Getty Images
modern Thursday application The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the biotech company’s new crown vaccine in the fall.
The attack targeted the omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the dominant strain of the virus nationwide.
Moderna said the filing was based on the FDA’s recommendation last week that vaccine makers update their vaccines to target XBB.1.5, one of the most immune-evading Covid strains to date.
Moderna and competitors Huizr and Novavax Development of a version of the vaccine against XBB had begun 1.5 months before the FDA recommendation.
All three companies are expected to have a vaccine available to Americans in the fall in time for FDA approval.
“The flexibility of our mRNA platform allowed us to update Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, Spikevax, to rapidly and rigorously target the XBB variant,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.
The FDA will review existing efficacy and safety data on Moderna’s vaccine to decide whether to approve the vaccine in the fall.
According to Moderna’s presentation last week, preclinical data in mice showed that a monovalent vaccine against the XBB.1.5 strain was more effective against the currently circulating The XBB variant produced a more robust immune response.
Data from clinical trials in more than 100 people also showed that the monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccine produced protective antibodies against all XBB variants. All trial participants had previously received four doses of the new crown vaccine.
The United States is expected to shift the distribution of the new crown vaccine to the private sector as soon as possible in the fall. That means Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax will sell their updated vaccines directly to healthcare providers rather than the government.
It’s unclear how many people will take the new photos.
Only about 17 percent of Americans have received the shot since the latest boosters from Pfizer and Moderna were approved in September, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
