Moderna: Combined coronavirus vaccine by autumn 2023

Moderna’s candidate vaccine specifically targeting the coronavirus mutant Omicron strain will enter clinical development in the coming weeks and the company estimates it will be able to share its data with regulators around March, it said Monday. the CEO of the American company, Stefan Banchel.

“The vaccine is being completed… it should enter clinical development in the coming weeks. We hope that in March we will be able to share data with regulators to determine the next steps,” Bansel told the World Economic Forum Davos Agenda. , according to Reuters.

Moderna is also developing a vaccine that will combine the booster dose against coronavirus with its experimental flu vaccine.

Banchel stressed that in the positive scenario the combined vaccine against coronavirus and influenza will be available by autumn 2023, at least in some countries.

“Our goal is to be able to have an annual booster dose so that we do not have compliance issues where people do not want to do two or three doses in the winter,” added the CEO of the American company.

Many countries are already giving a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine to their citizens, especially the elderly and immunocompromised people, while Israel has begun giving a fourth dose.

Earlier in January, the CEO of Moderna said that a fourth dose of the vaccine may be needed in the fall of 2022 as the effectiveness of booster doses against coronavirus is likely to decline in the coming months.

However, some experts are skeptical about whether booster doses are needed and how widely they should be given. The European Union’s drug regulator, which has expressed doubts about the need for a fourth booster dose, is moving in the same direction.

Speaking at the same event, US leading infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci said there was no evidence that repeated booster doses could damage the immune system.

“Regarding the administration of booster doses at different times, there is no evidence that they undermine (the immune response).”

Fauci added that the goal should be to have a booster dose that triggers an immune response to many potential variants of the coronavirus.