A committee of experts from the European Medicines Agency EMA has cleared the way for corona vaccines adapted to the omicron variant to be approved in the EU. The applications for approval for the vaccines against the omicron subtype BA.1 had been submitted by the Mainz-based biotechnology company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer, as well as by the US pharmaceutical company Moderna.

In mid-August, the British Medicines Agency gave the green light for Moderna's so-called bivalent corona vaccine, which, like the Biontech vaccine, is effective against both the original coronavirus strain and the omicron subvariant BA.1. However, the currently dominant subtypes of the omicron variant are BA.4 and BA.5. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday granted emergency use authorization for two adapted vaccines by Moderna and Biontech/Pfizer targeting these subtypes.

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