Moderna said that its redesigned COVID booster shot provides a strong immune response against multiple variants of the coronavirus.
The new booster shot is a bivalent vaccine that combines a variant-specific vaccine with the original mRNA vaccine. While the new formula focused on the beta variant, it still offered robust protection against the newer variants such as Delta and Omicron.
"Superiority continued six months after administration for Beta and Omicron variants of concern as well," Moderna said in a statement.
The company said the study results have not been peer-reviewed and noted they are working on several other formulations, including one targeted to fight the Omicron variant.
Moderna said that it hopes the newly formulated booster shots will be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration by the fall.
"Our latest bivalent booster candidate, mRNA-1273.214, which combines the currently authorized Moderna COVID-19 booster with our Omicron-specific booster candidate, remains our lead candidate for the fall 2022 Northern Hemisphere booster. We look forward to sharing initial data on mRNA-1273.214 later in the second quarter. We believe that a bivalent booster vaccine, if authorized, would create a new tool as we continue to respond to emerging variants," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said.