Swiss Health Agency Approves Pfizer, Novavax's Omicron Adapted COVID-19 Boosters

Vandana Singh
·1 min read
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  • Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic temporarily approved Pfizer Inc's (NYSE: PFE) COVID-19 booster shot targeting the original and BA.1 omicron coronavirus variants.

  • Swissmedic added that the available data was not yet sufficient to decide on Pfizer's bivalent booster vaccine targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants.

  • The bivalent vaccine contains mRNA for the spike protein of the Wuhan strain and that of the Omicron variant BA.1. The modified composition promises to be more effective against the Omicron variant BA.1.

  • The Swiss agency has also recommended Novavax Inc's (NASDAQ: NVAX) Nuvaxovid(NVX-CoV2373) as a heterologous and homologous booster.

  • The agency now recommends using Nuvaxovid as an adult booster regardless of previous vaccine history as part of its autumn 2022 COVID-19 vaccine booster campaign.

  • The recommendation followed the presentation of data describing the durability and breadth of the immune response following heterologous and homologous boosting.

  • It included data demonstrating that Nuvaxovid can induce a functional immune response against circulating Omicron subvariants and that the immune response to these subvariants became more potent with subsequent boosting.

  • Price Action: NVAX stock is up 6.35% at $17.40, and PFE shares are down 0.40% at $42.15 on the last check Monday.

  • Swissmedic Pfizer, Novavax (Viacheslav Lopatin by Shutterstock and Wikipedia)

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