By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The US biotech company Moderna has said that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine appears to protect against the Omicron variant, according to early laboratory tests.
The company said on Monday that its current vaccine would continue to be its “first line of defence against Omicron”, although Moderna still plans to develop a vaccine to protect specifically against Omicron.
“It’s highly effective, and it’s extremely safe. I think it will protect people through the coming holiday period and through these winter months when we’re going to see the most severe pressure of Omicron.”
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While the company reported that a two-dose course of the vaccine generates low neutralising antibodies against Omicron, a 50 microgram booster increased neutralising antibodies by 37 times.
Meanwhile, a 100 microgram booster dose resulted in an 80 times increase in antibodies from the initial two-dose course.
The data came from blood tests of people who had received the vaccine against a “pseudovirus” engineered to resemble the Omicron variant.
It had not yet been peer-reviewed.
