Vaccine makers are racing to develop the next wave of COVID-19 boosters as health officials prepare for an omicron-laden surge to hit the US this fall.
While existing vaccines continue to offer protection against severe disease and death from COVID-19, health officials are hoping for a boost targeting newer strains of the coronavirus, specifically the omicron BA subvariants. 4 and BA.5: will offer improved protection from this fall.
On Friday, July 29, the White House announced a deal to secure 66 million doses of an improved candidate for Moderna’s COVID vaccine, which aims to offer better protection against new strains of the coronavirus.
The government also has a deal to buy 105 million doses of a bivalent booster from Pfizer, with both deals requiring FDA clearance and CDC recommendation.
These bivalent boosters, which target two viral strains at once, are expected to be available early this fall. The FDA initially expressed optimism for an October launch, but The Washington Post reported Thursday that the Biden administration now hopes to have shots available in September.
Regardless, infectious disease specialists say an improved version of the vaccine was always the next step in gaining protection against an ever-evolving virus. This is because the original vaccine was made to target the original strain, which has since gone through numerous mutations.
“The vaccines we have are first generation; they’ve done a phenomenal job,” said Dr. Liam Sullivan, an infectious disease specialist at Spectrum Health. “I don’t even want to imagine what this would be like without vaccines. It would have been awful. They have kept people out of the hospital; they have prevented people from dying; they have been very successful, but they can also be improved.”
Related: BA.5 variant could accelerate COVID surge in Michigan fall
The latest increase in COVID cases worldwide has been linked to the newer omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5. The latter accounts for about 82% of cases in the United States and about 70% of cases of sequences in Michigan.
BA.5 spreads more easily than previous strains of coronavirus. Health officials say it’s also better to evade previous immunity, opening the door to infection among people who have already had COVID-19 as recently as this year.
“Omicron, unlike some of the other variants, has shown this innate ability to escape neutralizing antibodies,” Sullivan said. “But the good news is that these people are not getting seriously infected. They are getting a mild illness.”
Moderna says its bivalent booster candidate, which is designed against both the original strain and the newer omicron variant, has been effective in clinical trials. The company said in late June that it planned to submit its data to regulators and prepare the supply should it win approval in August.
Meanwhile, Pfizer has developed two new booster candidates: a bivalent trait and one that only targets omicron (monovalent). The company says both traits elicit a greater response against omicron BA.1 and, to a lesser extent, BA.4 and BA.5.
On Wednesday, Pfizer, along with partner BioNTech, began testing its bivalent booster in 200 clinical participants between the ages of 18 and 55.
Whenever plans are available to the public, there may be a new variant that has been solidified by then. But Dr Matthew Sims, director of infectious disease research at Beaumont Health, pointed out that a second-generation vaccine is also likely to offer better protection against the next strain, as it will likely have many of the same mutations as the omicron, and more.
“Like the vaccine we have now, when it was rolled out, the country had already gone to the alpha, but it was still just as effective because the alpha was pretty close to the original,” Sims said.
Michigan health officials have said the rapid spread of BA.5 could cause the fall surge weeks earlier than originally planned. They have long called for another wave of cases as students return to school and social gatherings move back indoors as temperatures drop.
The state recently saw its seven-day average of daily new COVID cases (2,369) hit its highest point since late May. Hospitalizations and deaths remain steady, but health officials are watching closely as they continue to urge vaccination for those who need to get a shot.
As of Wednesday, nearly 63 percent of Michigan residents had received at least one first dose of the COVID vaccine, while only 35.2 percent had received a booster shot beyond their initial dose.
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