Moderna has outlined its strategy to address the new coronaviruses variant Omicron, including a variant specific booster and a doubled booster dose.
The pharmaceutical company said in a press release on Friday that it was testing several options to respond to the new variant if current vaccines were not effective.
Omicron was designated a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization. Preliminary evidence shows that it may increase the risk of reinfection.
Moderna said that it has begun testing a booster shot that has double the authorized booster dose of 100 micrograms compared to healthy adults.
It said that it was studying two different boosters designed to anticipate the Omicron variant's new genes.
The company said it plans to "rapidly advance" an Omicron-specific booster dose.
The last option is being tested as part of the company's strategy to advance several variant-specific candidates.
Moderna said it was able to advance new candidates to clinical testing in 60-90 days.
"From the beginning, we have said that as we seek to defeat the epidemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the disease progresses," said Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna.
The Omicron variant is concerning and we have been moving quickly to address it.
Johnson & Johnson and BioNTech-Pfizer are among the vaccine producers testing their vaccines against Omicron.
Within two weeks, BioNTech-Pfizer will know if the vaccine works against the new variant.
The first case was detected in South Africa.
The country has seen a 13-fold increase in the average daily cases since the first Omicron case was reported.
The US will restrict travel from eight southern African countries on Monday to stop the spread of the variant.
