Moderna Inc (MRNA)

[axelvento]

Stephane Bancel said during an interview with CNBC’s “Squad Box” that while it will take some time to develop a vaccine that is specifically meant to protect against the omicron variant, the company could have a higher, 100-microgram dose, of its booster shot ready much earlier.

“The higher dose could be done right away but it will be months before the omicron specific variant is ready to ship in massive quantities,” Bancel said.

He also noted that it will take at least two weeks to gather information to understand how much the mutations in the omicron variant have affected the efficacy of existing vaccines. Bancel did, however, say Moderna believes that the new strain is highly infectious.

Additionally, the executive said that once the company learns about the new variant and vaccine efficacy it may consider allocating higher doses of existing shots, and could request authorization for a fourth jab for elderly individuals.

“Depending on how much it dropped, we might decide on the one hand to give a higher dose of the current vaccine around the world to protect people, maybe people at very high risk, the immunocompromised, and the elderly should need a fourth dose,” Bancel told CNBC.


https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/583340-moderna-ceo-says-itll-take-months-to-develop-ship-vaccine-targeting-omicron