Moderna’s updated COVID vaccine is effective against the ‘Eris’ variant in humans

Moderna said Thursday that preliminary trial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the “Eris” and “Fornax” sub-variants in humans.

The company expects the updated injection, pending approval from health authorities in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, to be available for the fall vaccination season in the coming weeks.

Moderna and other COVID-19 vaccine makers Novavax, Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE have created versions of their vaccines that target the XBB.1.5 sub-variant.

Earlier Thursday, Pfizer reported that its updated COVID-19 vaccine, co-developed with BioNTech, showed neutral activity against the Eris variant in a mouse study.

Eris, the alias of EG.5, is similar to the XBB.1.5 sub-variant and is a sub-strain of the still-dominant Omicron variant.

EG.5 has been responsible for nearly 17% of COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the latest government data. Infections from Fornax, officially known as FL 1.5.1, are also on the rise across the country.

US COVID-19-related hospitalizations have risen more than 40% from their lowest levels in June, but are still less than 90% of the peak levels reached during the Omicron outbreak in January 2022.

The World Health Organization has classified EG.5 as a “variant of concern,” indicating that it should be watched more closely than other variants because of mutations that could make it infectious or more dangerous. (Reporting by Prateek Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)