Omicron scare: COVID-19 booster shot ‘generally safe’ against new variant, says Moderna

Amid the scare of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron and the demand for booster shots of the vaccine, American biotechnology company Moderna, on Monday, said that its COVID-19 booster shot appears to increase antibody levels against the Omicron variant, preliminary data suggests.

The currently authorised 50-microgram booster of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 increased neutralising antibody levels against Omicron about 37-fold compared to pre-boost levels, and a 100-microgram booster dose increased neutralising antibody levels about 83-fold, Xinhua news agency quoted the company as saying.

A 100-microgram booster dose was “generally safe and well-tolerated,” according to the company. But there was a trend toward slightly more frequent adverse reactions following the 100-microgram booster dose relative to the authorised 50-microgram booster dose, said the company.

Stephane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna said that to respond to the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the company will continue to rapidly advance an Omicron-specific booster candidate into clinical testing in case it becomes necessary in the future.

The Omicron variant, which is possibly more contagious than the Delta variant, had been found in at least 47 US states as of Sunday, since the first case in the country was detected in California on December 1.

A new variant of COVID-19 was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on November 25. As per the WHO, the first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on November 9 this year.

On November 26, the WHO named the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, which has been detected in South Africa, as ‘Omicron;. The WHO has classified Omicron as a ‘variant of concern’.