08.07.2022, Berlin: Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Bundesminister für Gesundheit, äußert sich im Bundesgesundheitsministerium über die erste Stellungnahme der Regierungskommission für eine moderne und bedarfsgerechte Krankenhausversorgung. In der Stellungnahme geht es um Empfehlungen für eine Reform der stationären Vergütung für Pädiatrie, Kinderchirurgie und Geburtshilfe. Foto: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa +++ dpa-Bildfunk +++

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) assumes that the vaccines adapted to the omicron variant will be available at the beginning of autumn. “In September we will have adapted vaccines,” he said on Friday on ARD.

There have been delays here, “but the good news is: they are coming.”

The US company Moderna announced in the morning that the development of a corona vaccine adapted to the Omicron variant was about to be completed. The vaccine could be made available in August, Germany boss Gerald Wiegand told the “Wirtschaftswoche” on Friday. The further schedule depends “then on the approval authorities”.

The biotech company has signed a contract worth up to 1.74 billion dollars with the US government to supply the booster. This includes 66 million doses of the bivalent booster vaccine, which consists of the original Moderna vaccine Spikevax and one to combat the omicron variants BA.4./5.

The contract includes an option to purchase up to an additional 234 million doses of additional booster candidates from Moderna.

Moderna has signed contracts with the European Commission and some states that have enabled them to switch from the standard corona vaccine to the Omicron-adapted vaccine, Wiegand said. According to Moderna, the booster helps against the Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.

According to the latest study data, the adapted Omikron vaccine increases the number of neutralizing antibodies by a factor of six one month after vaccination – compared to the values ​​before the booster, the report said.