The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Wednesday it was aiming to approve a Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine as early as the fall targeting two subvariants of the rapidly spreading Omicron strain.
Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublines are fueling a spike in Covid-19 cases in Europe and the United States, prompting the WHO to declare last month that the pandemic was "far from 'to be over'.
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The European regulator said it launched a review on Monday of an adapted version of Pfizer's anti-Covid serum targeting these two subvariants, which are more easily transmitted and which evade the immune system more easily than earlier strains.
Two more requests from Pfizer and Moderna
“The EMA expects to receive an application for the adapted BA.4/5 vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, which will be assessed for potential rapid approval in the fall,” an EMA spokesperson said. in an email.
It should come “shortly after” the expected approval of two other adapted vaccines by Pfizer and its rival Moderna, which target the original Covid-19 strain and the earlier BA.1 subvariant of Omicron, continued the door. -word.
Pfizer and Moderna had filed separate approval applications for those vaccines on July 22, the spokesperson said.
The EMA has previously said that the first sera targeting Omicron could be approved as early as September.
