EU watchdog reviews Moderna jab for Omicron

The EU’s medicines watchdog said Friday it has started to review a version of Moderna’s Covid vaccine that has been adapted for the Omicron variant.

It is the second modified jab that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has begun studying for approval after Pfizer-BioNTech’s earlier this week.

The adapted Moderna jab “will target two strains of SARS-CoV-2, in this case the original strain and the Omicron variant of concern,” the EMA said in a statement.

The so-called rolling review will continue until there are enough data for a formal application to market the Moderna jab, which is known in Europe as Spikevax, within the 27-nation bloc, the EMA said.

Fears are mounting that coronavirus variants are making a comeback, with infection levels in Britain and the Netherlands rising recently.

Pfizer-BioNTech said earlier this week that their adapted jab would target “Omicron and its subvariants.”