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The American health authorities validated this Wednesday the new generation vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. They could be on the market soon.
While the human clinical trials of these two vaccines have not yet been completed, yesterday the American health authorities validated the two injections Pfizer and Moderna. These should ” provide increased protection against the Omicron variant currently in circulation “, specifies the American Medicines Agency (FDA) in a press release.
More effective vaccines against Omicron
These new “bivalent” vaccines, manufactured by the two giants of the pharmaceutical industry, mainly target the Omicron variant and its sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5 – which currently dominate the world.
Composed half of the original strain of the virus, which appeared in Wuhan in China, and half of the Omicron variant, these injections would have the advantage of being more “effective” than the old ones. Indeed, according to Santé Publique France, the current Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are only 19.8% and 27.4% effective against Omicron.
These booster doses will also be aimed at young adolescents (from 12 years old for that of Pfizer) and adults (from 18 years old for that of Moderna).
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they should be given two months after the primary vaccination or a recent booster.
This authorization comes at a time when the United States wishes to accelerate its vaccine strategy. From this fall, the country wants to start a new vaccination campaign in order to avoid, as much as possible, the number of new cases.
To carry out this campaign, the US government had purchased – earlier this summer – nearly 105 million doses of Pfizer and 66 million doses of Moderna.
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Both vaccines could get the green light in Europe
In Europe, the Pfizer and Moderna laboratories have filed an authorization request for this updated version of the vaccines with the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
For its part, Great Britain has already validated the new Moderna vaccine.
As for France, although it has not yet positioned itself on the subject of “bivalent” vaccines, the government has not, for the moment, planned to open the fourth dose to all French people. Today, it remains reserved for people over 60.