Competition among pharmaceutical firms has paved the way for faster approval for two separate Covid-19 vaccine boosters updated to target the Omicron variant.
The European Union’s drug regulator on Thursday authorized updated Covid-19 vaccine booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer ahead of an anticipated rise in infections this winter.
Cyprus has welcomed the news with head of the Pharmaceutical Services of the Ministry of Health Elena Panayiotopoulou telling Philenews that competition among pharmaceutical companies has probably worked for the best this time.
“We expected to have the updated vaccines later in the Autumn but it looks we will have them much earlier, as early as by the month’s end,” she added.
Panayiotopoulou also said that both are bivalent vaccines that combine the companies’ original vaccine with one that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sublineages.
Approval of the two updated vaccines was specifically announced by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
