Jorge Hinojosa
A Covid-19 booster vaccine made by a Spanish pharmaceutical firm has moved a step closer to being approved and could be on the market within two months.
Trials on the Hipra vaccine have shown it to be effective against Omicron strain and it is now under review by the EU watchdog, the last step before approval.
“Preliminary results suggest that the immune response with Covid-19 vaccine Hipra may be effective against SARS-CoV-2, including variants of concern such as Omicron,” the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement, although it did not say how long it could take to be approved.
The vaccine which is currently in phase III has been tested on 3,000 people from Italy, Spain and Portugal.
Carlos Fabrega, the director of pharmaceutical giant Hipra, expressed hope that it would ready by early summer.
“We want to have the vaccine on the market by June, ” he told EFE news agency.
The protein-based vaccine acts a booster for those who have already been fully vaccinated with another of the five vaccines approved by the EMA and is known as PHH-1V.
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