Vaccine for Omicron variant to be trialed in UAE

Abogen is testing an mRNA candidate based on an earlier coronavirus strain with no substantial mutations in a Phase III study in China, Mexico, and Indonesia, which was created in collaboration with Walvax Biotechnology and a Chinese military-backed research institute.

Suzhou Abogen Biosciences Co of China said on Friday that their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, which uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and targets the Omicron variation, has been approved for clinical trials in the United Arab Emirates.

Abogen has joined Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in testing candidates adapted particularly against Omicron, a highly transmissible strain with greater resistance to antibodies evoked by current injections, as per Friday’s release.

Mainland Over 88 percent of China’s 1.4 billion people have received non-mRNA vaccines against COVID. It has not licenced any foreign vaccinations, despite real-world evidence showing that the two most widely used Chinese treatments, made by Sinopharm and Sinovac, are less effective against COVID infection than Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA injections.

Abogen said in a statement that it was in talks with authorities in China and other countries about possible clinical trials for the Omicron-specific candidate.

Abogen is testing an mRNA candidate based on an earlier coronavirus strain with no substantial mutations in a Phase III study in China, Mexico, and Indonesia, which was created in collaboration with Walvax Biotechnology and a Chinese military-backed research institute.