S'pore approves Moderna's booster vaccine that targets original Covid-19 virus, Omicron variant
The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) on Wednesday granted interim authorisation for the use of Moderna's Spikevax bivalent Covid-19 vaccine, which targets both the original Sars-CoV-2 strain and the Omicron BA.1 variant.
The bivalent vaccine has been authorised for use as a booster for people aged 18 and above who have already received their primary series vaccination.
Official recommendations for this booster vaccine will be issued by the Expert Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination and the Ministry of Health in due time, HSA said.
The authority said it had consulted experts from its Medicines Advisory Committee and Panel of Infectious Diseases Experts in making its decision.
"HSA has carefully reviewed the data from Moderna's pre-clinical studies, clinical trials in human volunteers, manufacturing and quality controls, and assessed that the benefits outweighed the risks for use of the bivalent vaccine as a booster to protect against Covid-19 as the virus continues to evolve," it said.
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