The European Commission has approved another vaccine adapted to Omikron. The booster from the companies Biontech/Pfizer is aimed against the current corona variants, President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Twitter on Monday. A committee of experts from the EU medicines agency EMA had previously recommended the approval of the vaccine adapted to the Omicron sub-lines BA.4/BA.5.

The EMA announced that broader protection against different corona variants is expected. The vaccination is recommended for people aged 12 and over as a booster. BA.4/BA.5 are the omicron sublines that currently cause almost all corona infections in Germany according to data from random samples.

Due to the topicality, there are no completed clinical studies for the BA.4/BA.5 vaccine. As the EMA explained on Monday, the expert committee took into account all available data - for example also on the adapted vaccine recently approved in the EU, which also targets the omicron subline BA.1. BA.1 is no longer circulating in Germany.

According to EMA, the BA.4/BA.5-adapted vaccine is believed to be comparable in safety to the BA.1-adapted booster and the original Biontech/Pfizer vaccine, on which there is a large amount of data.