Receive free Covid-19 vaccine updates
we will send you myFT Daily Digest Email summary of the latest information Severe Specific Infectious Pneumonia Vaccine Every morning there is news.
Early research has raised hopes that the latest Covid-19 vaccine will help protect people from a new, highly mutated variant, BA.2.86, that scientists had feared could be dangerous.
Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech said on Wednesday that laboratory tests showed that their latest vaccine, designed to combat the popular XBB.1.5 variant, also elicited antibodies against the recently emerged BA.2.86 strain.
The Boston-based biotech’s announcement follows earlier research by scientists at Harvard University and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet that showed that people infected with the XBB.1.5 variant can also produce antibodies against BA.2.86. Antibody.
But there is less information about whether people who have previously received booster immunizations against other strains or who have infections caused by other variants are also immune to BA.2.86.
Moderna president Stephen Hoge said its updated Covid-19 vaccine produced a “robust human immune response” against the variant, increasing existing antibodies against the virus by 8.7 times. It provided a similar response to other emerging variants EG.5 and FL1.5.1, he added.
“These data confirm that our updated Covid-19 vaccine will continue to be an important protection tool as we move into the autumn vaccination season,” he said.
In afternoon trading in New York, Moderna shares fell 1.9 percent, Pfizer shares fell 3 percent and BioNTech shares fell 1.9 percent.
The US plans to begin rolling out the updated booster for XBB.1.5 in the coming weeks following FDA approval. The new boosters have been approved by EU and UK regulators, with the UK recommending their use for over 75s and the most vulnerable.
Fearing the potential danger posed by BA.2.86, England brought forward its Covid-19 vaccination campaign to start on 11 September instead of early October as originally planned. Britain’s health security agency said last week it had “limited knowledge” of the new variant.
Research from Baruch’s lab at Harvard University found that BA.2.86 elicited fewer antibodies than BA.2, a variant that circulated last year, but XBB.1.5 infection increased the antibody response, suggesting a tweaked vaccine might offer more protection.
Similarly, the Swedish team found that blood collected before the XBB variant became popular late last year contained antibodies that were less able to neutralize BA.2.86. But blood drawn last week contained antibodies against the strain. The researchers did not distinguish between those who were indeed infected with Covid-19, the disease caused by XBB.1.5, and those who were not.
Additional reporting by Jamie Smith in New York
Svlook
