Moderna's President Hoge Sees 'Reboot' Of Existing Shots If Efficacy Falls 50%: Bloomberg

Moderna Inc MRNA President Stephen Hoge said there’s a “real risk” that existing COVID-19 vaccines will be less effective against omicron, reported Bloomberg. In contrast, U.S. medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the variant’s severity might be limited.

• “I think that there’s a real risk that we’re going to see a decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccines,” Hoge said in an ABC interview. “What I don’t know is how substantial that is.”
• He said an updated formulation would probably be needed if effectiveness drops significantly.
• “Are we going to see something more like a 50% decrease in efficacy, which would really mean we’d probably need to reboot the vaccines and update them?” Hoge said.
• Financial markets were spooked last week when Moderna’s Bancel told the Financial Times he thinks “there is no world” in which existing shots will be as effective as against the delta variant.
• Data from South Africa, where omicron was first detected in November, suggest it may not cause more severe illness than the more widely circulating delta variant, Fauci said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He cautioned that his conclusion was preliminary.
• Moderna co-founder Noubar Afeyan said he expects more about omicron in the next seven to 10 days.
• “We suspect that we will see protection against more severe hospitalization, death indications,” he told CNN.
• Price Action: MRNA shares are down 2.84% at $298 during the premarket session on the last check Monday.