Moderna’s Omicron jab ready for Australia by August 1

Moderna has announced the date that Aussies could get access to an Omicron-specific vaccine, as the company revealed it can make variant-specific vaccines in weeks.

Exclusive: Australians could have access to a new Covid jab to protect against Omicron by August, Moderna’s general manager for Australia Michael Arzak has told News Corp.

And, the company said its mRNA vaccine production model is so fast it will soon be able to produce, within weeks, vaccines specific to the viruses actually circulating in Australia at any point in time.

The company is working on a new single vaccine that would protect against three killer respiratory viruses – Covid, the flu and RSV (a common cold-like virus that kills the elderly and hospitalises young babies) that could be produced in its Australian plant.

Moderna’s new vaccine targets both the original Covid strain and Omicron. Picture: AFP

As soon as the company gets the genetic code of the particular variants of the viruses circulating in the community it can produce a vaccine against it and manufacture millions of doses within weeks, Moderna’s chief medical officer Paul Burton told News Corp.

This compares to the six-month time frame it takes to produce the traditional flu vaccine which is often no longer matched to the strains in circulation by the time it comes off the production line.

“The amazing thing with this platform is the speed with which you can adapt. So once you identify that pathogen, the new strain of the virus and you can make the mRNA, you can put it straight into the lipid nanoparticle and you have a vaccine that’s ready to go,” Mr Burton said.

Moderna's Chief Medical Officer Dr Paul Burton.

Mr Arzak said: “We could potentially make a mid-season flu, Australia specific vaccine by addressing the antigens that we need to form to a flu that is specific to Australia at the moment.”

A major hurdle to this at the moment is the requirement that each new version of mRNA vaccine has to undergo clinical trials, traditional flu vaccines have no such requirement.

Global medical regulators are expected to make a ruling soon that would eliminate the need for these clinical trials given over 700 million people have used mRNA vaccines with minimal safety problems.

If the need for clinical trials is eliminated this could dramatically speed up access to newer versions of the vaccine.

Last week Moderna released data from a trial showing its new Omicron-specific vaccine produced a 12-fold increase in antibody levels against Covid.

The bivalent booster vaccine combining the Wuhan strain and the Omicron variant will be ready for use in Australia by August 1, Mr Arzak said.

Michael Azrak, General Manager Moderna Australia and NZ. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

“The product is available and we will be in a position to supply from August 1 but obviously it’s still under evaluation by the TGA and then you obviously have your ATAGI recommendations as soon as it comes up,” he said.

It will be will be up to federal Health Minister Mark Butler to order supplies of the vaccine, he said.

“This really is now a population health decision discussion here in Australia. But we’re ready to support as needed,” Mr Burton said.

The booster has the potential to be a “transformational turning point in our fight against this virus globally,” Mr Burton said.

“The virus now mutates frequently, far faster than it ever used to and for us to really win this battle we have to be able to quickly adapt and come out with very adaptive bivalent boosters (to) give us an opportunity to leapfrog the evolution that this virus keeps doing,” Mr Burton said.

Moderna is powering ahead with its plans to set up an mRNA vaccine manufacturing plant in Melbourne later this year.

“We hope to start building by the end of this year, and have the facility operational by the end of 2024. Subject to TGA regulatory approvals,” Mr Arzak said.

Originally published as Moderna’s Omicron jab ready for Australia by August 1