Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech say they have signed up the first participants for a clinical trial of a vaccine tailored to target the specific Omicron variant of Covid.
The proposed vaccine will be trialed among 1,420 adults between the ages of 18-55, testing for safety, tolerability and efficacy against Omicron.
Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s head of vaccine research & development, said, “We believe developing and investigating variant-based vaccines, like this one, are essential” in developing a high-level of protection against the virus.
The companies added that they do not expect production capacity to change should they focus manufacturing on the Omicron-tailored vaccine, with Pfizer previously saying it has already begun mass producing some of the new jabs that could be ready my March.
There are concerns among some epidemiologists that this new vaccine could become redundant when the time comes to scale production, given the rate at which the virus mutates.