Analysis: Governments want COVID vaccine developers to aim higher in developing new and better shots

Analysis: Governments want COVID vaccine developers to aim higher in hunt for better shots As governments prepare to live with COVID-19, some are questioning how much to rely on drugmakers to adapt vaccines to ward off future virus variants amid signs of tension between companies and regulators over the best approach, according to several sources familiar with the matter. Ludwig Burger,Emilio Parodi Reuters

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Some vaccine experts say government agencies should fund and help develop a new generation of COVID shots, and seek innovation from smaller developers, as they did to identify current vaccines.

"We have established a research infrastructure that could do this relatively reasonably rapidly if we primed the pump and created the same kind of plan for second-generation vaccines as we did for the first-generation vaccines," Dr. Larry Corey, a virologist who is overseeing U.S. government-backed COVID vaccine trials, told Reuters.

BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and Pfizer (PFE.N), who developed the western world's most widely used COVID vaccine, recently clashed with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) over the best strategy for developing a new vaccine against the Omicron variant, and whatever may follow, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

An EMA spokesperson said the agency, along with other regulators, are encouraging companies to explore vaccines that target multiple variants.

In January, BioNTech and Pfizer began testing a vaccine designed to target Omicron alone, believing the best approach is to tackle one major new variant at a time.

They had said a modified vaccine may not be necessary even after emergence of the highly-mutated Omicron late last year led to a record surge in infections. read more

EMA regulators pressed the drugmakers to give equal priority to a vaccine targeting multiple variants, figuring that would offer broader protection against future mutations, the sources said. One of the sources said EMA would not signal whether the current vaccine trials will be enough to warrant approval even if the companies demonstrate safety and immune response.

On Wednesday, BioNTech said the companies would broaden their trial to test a shot targeting Omicron and the original version of the coronavirus. read more

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