The news came hard on the heels of Moderna’s announcement that it will build a research and manufacturing facility in the UK to produce COVID and other mRNA jabs, and an additional order for 60 million doses that could be fulfilled using the new Omicron-targeted version, if authorised.
The new vaccine – called mRNA-1273.214 – is a bivalent shot, incorporating mRNA that codes for the spike protein of the original ‘wild-type’ SARS-CoV-2 strain and the Omicron variant that emerged last winter.