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Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Moderna said on Monday that its COVID-19 booster prototypes provide "superior protection" against the contagious Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. The biotechnology company said its new vaccine boosters in Phase 2 and Phase 3 testing have triggered a "superior antibody response" compared to its original booster shots.
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"We are pleased to see that both of our bivalent booster vaccine candidates offer superior protection against Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variants compared to our original booster, which is encouraging given COVID-19 remains a leading cause of hospitalization and death globally," Stephane Bancel, Moderna's CEO, said in a statement.
The company said that the superior response against the Omicron variants "persisted for at least three months" after receiving the updated booster.
The new bivalent booster also showed "neutralizing activity" against the "increasingly dominant emerging variant" BQ.1.1, confirming that "updated vaccines have the potential to offer protection as the virus continues to evolve rapidly to escape our immunity."
Moderna said in the Phase 2/3 study, its new booster "elicited a superior neutralizing antibody response" against the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants in previously vaccinated and boosted participants ages 19-89 years.
Moderna's news comes after Pfizer and BioNTech jointly announced earlier this month that their latest COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine is much more effective than the original vaccine was against Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants for people over 55.
