Latest vaccines help tackle highly mutated new Covid variant

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Early studies have provided hope that the newest Covid-19 vaccines will help protect people against the highly mutated new variant BA.2.86, which scientists had feared could prove dangerous. 

Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech said on Wednesday that a lab test showed its latest vaccine, which was designed to tackle the prevalent XBB.1.5 variant, also elicits antibodies to the more recently emerged strain BA.2.86. 

The Boston-based biotech’s announcement follows early research from scientists at Harvard and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute that suggested that people who had been infected with the XBB.1.5 variant could also make antibodies against BA.2.86. 

But there is less information available about whether people who had received previous boosters targeted at other strains, or had infections caused by other variants, are as well protected against BA.2.86. 

Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, said its updated Covid-19 vaccine creates a “strong human immune response” against the variant, increasing existing antibodies that tackle the virus 8.7 fold. He added that it provides a similar response against other emerging variants, EG.5 and FL1.5.1.

“These data confirm that our updated Covid-19 vaccine will continue to be an important tool for protection as we head into the fall vaccination season,” he said.

Shares in Moderna were down 1.9 per cent in afternoon trading in New York, while Pfizer was down 3 per cent and BioNTech shed 1.9 per cent.

The US is planning to start rolling out updated boosters targeting XBB.1.5 in the coming weeks after the Food and Drug Administration gives its approval. EU and UK regulators have approved new boosters, with the UK recommending them for the over-75s and the most vulnerable.

England has brought forward its Covid-19 vaccination campaign to start on September 11, rather than the start of October as originally planned, because of worries about the potential danger posed by BA.2.86. The UK health security agency said last week that it had “limited information” on the new variant. 

Research by the Barouch Laboratory at Harvard found that BA.2.86 elicited fewer antibodies than the variant BA.2, which was prevalent last year, but that an XBB.1.5 infection increased the antibody response, suggesting that the tweaked vaccines may offer more protection. 

Similarly, the Swedish team found that blood taken late last year before the XBB variant was circulating, contained antibodies that were less able to neutralise BA.2.86. But far more of the blood taken last week had antibodies against the strain. The researchers did not distinguish between people who had definitely had a Covid-19 infection caused by XBB.1.5 and those who had not.

Additional reporting by Jamie Smyth in New York