Moderna announced on Thursday that it has asked the US Medicines Agency (FDA) to authorize an additional booster dose of their Covid-19 vaccine for all adults.
The petition filed concerns “
adults 18 years of age or older who have received a first booster dose
,” the company said in a statement.
Read alsoStéphane Bancel: “Within 12 to 18 months, Moderna will have the scale of a Roche or Novartis”
The announcement comes days after that of Pfizer and BioNTech, which said on Tuesday they had requested approval for a second booster dose, but only for people 65 and older.
Moderna chose to include all adults over the age of 18 to "
provide flexibility
" for health authorities to determine "
appropriate use
" of this dose, such as for the elderly or those with comorbidities, said the company.
The firm said it based its request in part on "
recently published data in the United States and Israel following the emergence of Omicron
."
“Marginal benefit” according to a study
Israel was the first country to launch a new vaccination campaign.
A fourth dose of Pfizer's anti-Covid vaccine has been administered there since the beginning of January to those over 60, extended at the end of January to those over 18 at risk.
Other countries have since followed suit.
A second booster dose is on the agenda in Chile, Sweden or Spain.
In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Saturday the opening of the fourth dose of vaccine “
to those over 80 who have received their booster dose for more than three months
”.
Read alsoCovid-19: Jean Castex announces the opening of the fourth dose of vaccine to those over 80
But, according to an Israeli study published Wednesday by the
New England Journal of Medicine
, a second booster dose of current messenger RNA vaccines may have only "
marginal benefit
" against Covid-19 infections in young adults in good health.
Results which must however be taken with caution, given the small number of participants.
