The U.K. has granted the world’s first approval for a COVID-19 vaccine targeting a variant in a bid to sharpen its response to an evolving coronavirus.
The country’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency cleared Moderna Inc.’s bivalent mRNA booster vaccine for adults, according to a statement Monday, in a move paving the way for it to potentially form part of Britain’s autumn booster campaign.
Moderna’s bivalent shot targets two strains - half of the dose works against the original version of the coronavirus, while the other half protects against BA.1, an early version of the omicron variant that fueled new COVID infections last winter. The existing shots currently widely used around the world have been developed based on the original wild-type coronavirus that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
