COVID-19: UK approves updated Moderna vaccine targeting Omicron variant

The United Kingdom's drug regulator on Monday said it has approved an updated Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus that targets the Omicron variant as well as the original form, according to AFP report.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said in a statement it had approved the vaccine for adult booster doses "after it was found to meet the UK regulator's standards of safety, quality and effectiveness" and to prompt a "strong immune response" against both strains.

The MHRA's chief executive June Raine said that data from a clinical trial had shown it prompted a "strong immune response" against the original virus and Omicron, and would provide a "sharpened tool in our armoury" as the virus kept evolving.

The World Health Organization had in July warned that the pandemic was "nowhere near over", due to the spread of Omicron subvariants and to the lifting of control measures.

Half of the Moderna vaccine, called Spikevax bivalent Original/Omicron, targets the original 2020 virus and half the Omicron variant (BA.1).

The MHRA said the vaccine was also found to generate a "good response" against two Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, which have partly driven a wave of new cases of the disease in Europe and the United States.