Pfizer has announced details of its trial of a slightly tweaked Covid-19 vaccine, specifically designed to work against the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The dominant strain of the virus saw the need for global restrictions to prevent the spread, as the highly contagious variant managed to sweep across the globe in a matter of months.
After it was discovered that the side effects were far less severe than those caused by the Delta strain, many countries began to move towards pre-pandemic life, however, there are suggestions that more will be needed to suppress any more contagious variants in future.
Pfizer has decided to plough ahead with their research into an adapted vaccine dose, in response to the potential for health officials to decide they’re needed in the future.
Although Omicron has proven capable of infecting those who have been vaccinated and boostered, it has yet to be confirmed if a new vaccine could prevent this.
Pfizer says that the original vaccines still offer good protection against severe illness and death and that it’s clear that the booster dose strengthens that protection and improves the chances of avoiding severe effects.
“We recognize the need to be prepared in the event this protection wanes over time and to potentially help address omicron and new variants in the future,” Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s vaccine research chief, said in a statement.
Proffessor Ugur Sahin, CEO and Co-founder of BioNTech explained that “vaccines continue to offer strong protection against severe disease caused by Omicron.
“Yet, emerging data indicate vaccine-induced protection against infection and mild to moderate disease wanes more rapidly than was observed with prior strains.
“This study is part of our science-based approach to develop a variant-based vaccine that achieves a similar level of protection against Omicron as it did with earlier variants but with longer duration of protection.”
1,420 healthy adults, ages 18 to 55 will take part in the latest study testing the updated omicron-based shots for use as a booster or for primary vaccination going forward.
Researchers will focus on the potential of the new dose to ramp up the immune system in comparison to the original.
It is understood that the study also will enrol some unvaccinated volunteers who will receive three doses of the omicron-based vaccine.
