In view of the increasing number of corona infections, some are worried about their vaccination protection from last year. Many people in Germany are therefore hoping for an adapted vaccine before the expected autumn wave.
Self-government, telematics, Morbi-RSA: The briefing on health
Although the omicron variant is considered to be more harmless than its predecessors, the number of Covid 19 deaths in recent months has still been quite high. In the current weekly report, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) writes: “In the fifth wave, despite the mostly comparatively mild course of the disease, there was an increase in deaths due to the high number of infections.”
In addition, all infected people are threatened with the consequences of a long-Covid illness. So far, more than 51 million people in Germany have received a booster vaccination.
Biontech wants to make its corona vaccine, which has been adapted to the omicron variant, available a few days after the approval by the European Medicines Agency EMA, which is expected shortly.
“We can deliver very promptly, hopefully from the beginning of September,” said company boss Ugur Sahin to the “Spiegel”.
The schedule for the company Moderna should look similar. The EMA recently announced that the responsible committee wants to decide on the applications for approval from Biontech/Pfizer and the US company Moderna on September 1st.
Even though the adapted vaccines have been available from the manufacturers for almost six months, clinical trials were necessary first. According to Biontech founder Sahin, however, these processes should be improved in the future in order to be able to react more quickly to any mutations.
In the omicron variant, the so-called spike protein differs significantly from that of the original variant. From last year’s vaccine, only a few antibodies can therefore recognize the virus. With the adapted vaccine, the body thus develops significantly more antibodies against the corresponding omicron variant.
According to Sahin, Biontech has produced vaccines for two corona variants. One is based on the omicron subtype BA.1, the other on the subtype BA.5.
“Both have shown in studies that they produce a clearly superior antibody response to omicron compared to the original vaccine,” says Sahin. Omicron currently accounts for 99.8 percent of pathogens and is constantly mutating.
However, the vaccine against BA.5 is even more effective against the currently predominant variant. One is in the process of submitting all the necessary documents for approval for this vaccine.
In addition to Biontech/Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company Moderna also started manufacturing an adapted vaccine in January. This is apparently the most effective against variant BA.1 and is currently in the EMA approval process. A vaccine against the BA.5 variant, which is prevalent in Europe, is still in an earlier phase of development.
The Novavax company is also working on adapting its existing corona vaccine to the BA.1 variant. According to the company, the use of the already approved vaccine as a booster also has a high effect against the subvariants BA.1, BA.2 and BA.5.
In addition, there are ambitions for customized vaccines from companies not licensed in the European Union. However, a corresponding approval should take significantly longer than, for example, at Biontech.
Biontech has applied for approval for people aged 12 and over. In general, the Standing Vaccination Committee (Stiko) recommends a fourth corona vaccination for all people over the age of 60 and for high-risk patients.
Based on the studies by Biontech, Sahin recommends a gap of six to eight months after the last corona vaccination. Individuals who have not yet contracted the omicron variant could likely shorten this distance. More precise information will also be given promptly by the Stiko.
