Moderna seeks US clearance for second booster dose

After Pfizer and BioNTech, it’s Moderna’s turn to try to get its covid-19 vaccine authorized for an additional booster dose. The petition filed Friday with the U.S. Drug Administration (FDA) concerns “adults 18 years of age or older who have received a first booster dose,” the company said in a statement.

A small difference with its competitor Pfizer, which only requested it for people aged 65 and over. Moderna chose to include all adults over the age of 18 to “provide flexibility” for health authorities to determine “appropriate use” of this dose, such as for the elderly or those with comorbidities, said the company.

Open to people over 80 in France

The firm said it based its request in part on “recently published data in the United States and Israel following the emergence of Omicron.” But, according to an Israeli study published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, a second booster dose of current messenger RNA vaccines may have only a “marginal benefit” against Covid-19 infections in young adults in good health. Results which must however be taken with caution, given the small number of participants.

In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Saturday the opening of the fourth dose of vaccine “to those over 80 who have received their booster dose for more than three months”.