Moderna focusing on launching single COVID and flu booster vaccines

Pharma giant Moderna is currently focusing on launching a single booster vaccine that will protect against COVID-19 as well as flu within two years. The announcement came from the chief executive of the company Stephane Bancel, who said that the combined vaccine would protect against influenza, RSV which is a common respiratory virus and COVID-19. Bancel assured that the new combination vaccine could be made available by the winter infectious season in 2023.

The chief executive during a pane session at the World Economic Forum in Davos said that their aim is to provide a single annual booster that would not allow any compliance problems where people are not willing to have two to three shots per winter. Meanwhile, the government of the United Kingdom is encouraging the public to get a third booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, especially for people who come under the most vulnerable segment or those who have a weak immune system. Some of the efforts from the government includes a mobile text message campaign that is sent to people across the country on Boxing day.

Bancel has also said that people might also need to have a fourth shot of the vaccine by this autumn as the protection from the booster shots would decline in the upcoming months. In January, 2022, Israel became the first country in the world to offer a fourth booster dose for the COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 60 years and above. Meanwhile, Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser of the US President, while talking at Davos said that no evidence suggests that repeated booster disease overwhelms the immune system.

Fauci added that giving booster shots induces the response against the number of potential variants. On the other hand Bancel said that the vaccine candidate of Moderna had targeted the omicron variant specifically and is ready to enter the clinical development. It is expected to share the data with the regulatory authorities around March, 2022.

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