The European Commission authorized on Friday the Moderna vaccine updated to target widespread Covid-19 sub-variant as winter approachesfollowing having already given the green light to the updated version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Although, since the beginning of May, the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers Covid-19 a global health emergency, 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 XBB strain of the virus, which has become dominant in Europe and other parts of the world.
The updated vaccine from the American laboratory Moderna, targeting the XBB.1.5 sub-variant from Omicron, was approved for adults and children over 5 years oldwho will have to receive a single injection regardless of their previous vaccinations received.
Accelerated procedure
At the beginning of September, the Commission gave the green light to the updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, also adapted to better counter the XBB.1.5 subvariant with a single injection.
These two vaccines, which more generally offer better protection once morest other variants currently in circulationhad been approved in recent weeks by the EMA, the European regulator.
The Commission has authorized the placing on the market of these updated vaccines under an accelerated procedure in order to enable Member States to prepare their autumn and winter vaccination campaigns in time.
American health authorities announced Monday that they were authorizing updates to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, at a time when the number of hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 is increasing in the United States.
