A redesigned version of Moderna’s Covid-19 booster shot appears to provide stronger protection against the omicron variant than its current vaccine, the company said in a news release Wednesday. Early trial results found the bivalent vaccine — which is designed to target both the omicron variant and the original coronavirus strain in a single shot — led to an eightfold increase in neutralizing antibody levels, according to the company.
The updated vaccine also increased antibody levels against all other known variants of concern, it said. Moderna has called the omicron bivalent vaccine its “lead candidate” for the fall. The new shot, called mRNA-1273.214, was tested in a Phase 2/3 clinical trial of 437 people at 50 micrograms — the same dosage given in the current booster shot.
The new shot was generally well-tolerated, the company said, with side effects similar to those with a booster dose of its existing vaccine. Moderna has only announced the trial results in a news release; the data have not yet been made available to outside scientists for review.