The European Commission on Friday approved Moderna’s updated vaccine targeting a widespread sub-variant of Covid-19 as winter approaches, after already giving the green light to the updated version of the Pfizer – BioNTech – vaccine.
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Although the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers Covid-19 a global health emergency since the beginning of May, the virus continues to circulate in all countries and new strains continue to emerge.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended in June that vaccines be updated to target the XBB strain of the virus that has become dominant in Europe and other parts of the world.
The updated vaccine from the American laboratory Moderna, targeting Omicron’s XBB.1.5 sub-variant, has been approved for adults and children over 5 years old, who must receive a single injection regardless of their previous vaccinations.
In early September, the Commission gave the green light to the updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was also adapted to better counteract the XBB.1.5 sub-variant with a single injection.
These two vaccines, which generally offer better protection against other variants currently circulating, were approved by the European regulator EMA in recent weeks.
The Commission has authorized the placing on the market of these updated vaccines under an accelerated procedure to allow Member States to prepare their autumn and winter vaccination campaigns in a timely manner.
American health regulators said Monday they would approve updates to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines at a time when Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising in the United States.