Moderna Covid-19 booster gets UK approval

An updated version of the COVID-19 vaccine, made by Moderna, has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency MHRA for adult booster doses after it was found to meet the UK regulators' standards of safety, quality and effectiveness, according to an official government release Monday.

Half of the booster, called Spikevax bivalent Original Omicron, targets the original coronavirus strain, while the other half targets Omicron, it said.

The decision to grant approval for the shot was endorsed by the MHRA, the government's independent scientific advisory body, after carefully reviewing the evidence.

The side effects were described by the MHRA as being the same as for the original Moderna booster dose and found to be mild and self-resolving. The UK government released said no serious safety concerns were identified. As Covid 19 continues to mutate MHRA Chief Executive Dr. June Raine, the new Moderna booster will help keep communities protected. The first generation of COVID 19 vaccines being used in the UK continues to provide important protection against the disease and save lives. The bivalent vaccine gives us a sharpened tool in our armoury to protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve. It is not yet clear who will be offered the booster or when. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization JCVI will give advice on the vaccine's roll out. St phane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said on Twitter he was delighted that the vaccine had been approved. This bivalent vaccine has an important role to play in protecting people in the UK from Covid 19 as we enter the winter months as a result of this, a first authorization of an Omicron-containing bivalent vaccine. Moderna is not the only vaccine maker that has updated its Covid 19 vaccines. In June, Pfizer and BioNTech tested two Covid- 19 vaccine boosters to target the Omicron variant. The companies said that preliminary results show a significantly higher immune response than the current Covid 19 shots.