Photo: NARENDRA SHRESTHA / EFE
For: Real America News Updated 17 Jan 2022, 23: 01 pm EST
The executive president of the American pharmaceutical company Moderna, Stephane Bancel, said this Monday at the Davos Forum that his company continues to work on the development of a vaccine that works against the flu and also COVID-23, although it indicated that it will not be ready before the end of 2023.
“Our goal is to have a a single annual booster dose so that people avoid having to be vaccinated two or three times in the winter,” explained Bancel.
Modern’s vaccine is based on the COVID-virus 19 before its mutation into different variants. Bancel indicated that the company is working on a specific compound against Ómicron that could be ready for trials in the coming weeks.
“We hope to be able to deliver submit data to the regulators in March to be able to determine the next steps,” he said.
Laboratories are also in the race to achieve a vaccine that works against all mutations of the virus, both current and future.
The fourth dose is partially effective against the Omicron variant, according to an Israeli study
The fourth dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna is only partially effective with the Omicron variant, according to preliminary results of a Sheba Medical Center study, in Israel, announced the leader of the investigation.
“Despite the increase in antibody levels, the fourth vaccine only offers a partial defense against the virus. Thus, the vaccines, which were more effective against previous variants, offer less protection against Ómicron
”, Gili Regev-Yochay, who is leading the investigation, announced today.
The trial was conducted between 154 Sheba medical staff who received a dose from BioNTech/Pfizer and others 120 that were inoculated with the dose of Moderna.
All the volunteers were previously vaccinated with the three doses of BioNTech/Pfizer.
“The trials showed that one week after people received the Moderna vaccine, the increase in antibody levels was similar to that of those who received the fourth Pfizer vaccine”, concludes this first trial.
In addition, research showed that two weeks after receiving the fourth BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, “ antibody levels continued to increase slightly after the first week.”
(With information from DW)
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