The company claims that seven days after its administration, an increase in antibodies was observed
Pfizer and BioNTech announced that a booster dose of their updated Omicron vaccine significantly increases neutralizing antibodies and protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 subtypes of the coronavirus in people over 18 years of age, relative to antibody levels before the new booster dose, according to the preliminary data analyzed.
“We are pleased to see encouraging responses just one week after vaccination in both younger and older adults. These initial data show that our bivalent vaccine is expected to provide better protection than the original vaccine against the variants now circulating, and will likely help reduce future outbreaks this winter,” said the Greek-born CEO American Pfizer consultant Albert Burla, who said more data will follow in the coming weeks.
The bivalent vaccine targets both the original strain of the virus and Omicron’s B.A4 and B.A.5 subvariants.
Preliminary data from the phase 2/3 clinical trial comes from blood samples taken from 40 people aged 18 to 55 and another 40 over 55. Pfizer reported that its updated BA.4/BA.5 bivalent vaccine (at a dose of 30 micrograms), seven days after its administration, produced a substantial boost in the level of protective antibodies in both of the above age groups.
In contrast, further data from a group of 40 people over 55 years of age who had received the first-generation (not updated against the latest Omicron subvariants) vaccines showed only a limited increase in anti-BA.5 antibodies.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the updated Omicron vaccines in September for ages 12 and older (similar approval has been given by the European Medicines Agency), before there were any human data on whether they were effective against of BA.4/BA.5. On Wednesday, the FDA approved the updated vaccine for use in children ages 5-11. Pfizer has assured that its new bivalent updated vaccines have a similar safety “profile” to its original Covid-19 vaccines.
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