Stephane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna
(Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)Another Covid booster vaccine will be needed by autumn, the chief executive of Moderna has said.
Stephane Bancel said the US biotech company was working on a new booster to be ready by August when he said more vulnerable people may need an extra dose.
The company is waiting for clinical data to show whether that vaccine would offer better protection than a new dose of an existing jab, he said.
Moderna‘s vaccines use mRNA technology to provoke an immune response, similar to the shot developed by Pfizer/BioNTech.
“We believe a booster will be needed. I don’t know yet if it is going to be the existing vaccine, Omicron-only, or bivalent: Omicron and existing vaccine, two mRNA in one dose.”
He said a decision would be made in the coming months when clinical data becomes available.
Mr Bancel was optimistic that the end of the pandemic may be in sight.
On Wednesday, he told American news outlet CNBC there was an “80 per cent chance that as Omicron evolves or [Covid] virus evolves, we are going to see less and less virulent viruses.”
He continued: “I think we got lucky as a world that Omicron was not very virulent, but still are we see thousands of people dying every day around the planet because of Omicron.”
However, he cautioned that there was a 20 per cent chance another mutation could be “more virulent than Omicron”.
He added that it was a “reasonable scenario” to suggest the world may be entering the final stages of the pandemic.
