European Medicines Agency clears Pfizer-BioNTech's tweaked Covid booster

The European Medicines Agency has recommended the authorisation of a tweaked booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine that includes protection against two of the latest versions of omicron, as countries look to bolster their immunisation programs ahead of winter.

The EU regulator said Monday that laboratory studies suggest the combination vaccine which targets both the original COVID-19 virus as well as the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 should trigger an effective immune response.

The vaccine is expected to be as safe as the original version, but the agency will continue to track its rollout globally since the data is limited.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the modified vaccine shot the green light last month.

According to the World Health Organisation, the BA.5 version of omicron is responsible for most of the COVID-19 spreading globally; it made up about 87% of all virus sequences shared with the biggest public database.

Earlier this month, the .