The World Talks About Booster Vaccines And Moderna Talks About Profit Projections

Officer shows a bottle of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine during an independent vaccination event (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The appearance of the Omicron variant has shocked the world and has begun to aggressively carry out booster vaccines. And the talk about boosters makes Moderna profit.

Quoted from the Guardian, Monday 10 January, Moderna has announced that it expects record sales of around $18.5 billion in contracts for a COVID vaccine in 2022. The US vaccine maker said it could also generate about $3.5 billion from potential additional purchases, including an updated booster candidate for variant.

The company in November said its sales could be in the $17 billion to $22 billion range by 2022, according to Reuters.

Moderna said it is in active discussions for more COVID-19 vaccine contracts this year and is developing a booster vaccine candidate, called mRNA-1273,529, to target the Omicron variant.

Booster doses of the company's current Covid-19 vaccine, mRNA-1273, increased levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron using doses at 50 micrograms and 100 micrograms, Moderna said.

Moderna said laboratory blood studies showed that 20 people who received 50 micrograms of the Moderna booster had 37 times the amount of neutralizing antibody compared to the blood of people who received only two injections.

Moderna has reduced the booster dose to half the dose of the two injections to limit side effects such as fever, muscle aches and fatigue.

A group that received a third injection of a dose of 100 micrograms experienced an 83-fold jump in neutralizing antibodies to Omicron.

Founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Dr. Eric Topol, said an increase of that magnitude was not necessary to provide protection.