Pfizer Develops Omicron Vaccine with 20 Times More Antibodies Than Existing Vaccines

Type 2 vaccine also increases antibodies 10-fold... Less effective against Omicron subvariants
US FDA to discuss new vaccine administration plans

[Asia Economy International Department Reporter] American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German BioNTech announced on the 25th (local time) that their newly modified vaccine targeting the COVID-19 Omicron variant induces a much stronger immune response than the existing vaccine.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Pfizer and BioNTech administered 30㎍ or 60㎍ of the new vaccine to 1,234 clinical trial participants aged 56 and older, and one month later, the level of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant increased 13.5 to 19.6 times compared to the existing vaccine.

The bivalent vaccine developed by the two companies targeting both the Omicron variant and the original COVID-19 strain also generated 9.1 to 10.9 times more neutralizing antibodies than the existing vaccine in this trial.

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said, "Based on this clinical data, we believe we now have two very potent modified Omicron vaccine candidates that induce a significantly higher immune response to the Omicron variant than before."

However, both the newly developed Omicron vaccine and the bivalent vaccine showed immune responses against the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 that dropped to about one-third, the two companies reported.

Pfizer and BioNTech also shared these results with U.S. health authorities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to hold an external advisory committee meeting on the 28th to discuss whether pharmaceutical companies will administer the improved new vaccines starting this fall.

Prior to Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna also recently announced that its newly developed bivalent vaccine targeting the Omicron variant generated neutralizing antibodies against BA.4 and BA.5.