Markets Drop As Moderna CEO Predicts Existing Covid-19 Vaccines Will Be Less Effective Against Omicron Variant

Markets Drop As Moderna CEO Predicts Existing Covid-19 Vaccines Will Be Less Effective Against Omicron Variant

Share to Linkedin Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel on Tuesday speculated that existing Covid-19 vaccines may be far less effective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus, in a statement that appears to have spooked the financial markets and led to a slump in key vaccine stocks like Moderna and BioNTech in the futures market. Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel said he expects a "material drop" in the effectiveness of current ... [+] vaccines against the Omicron variant. In an interview with the Financial Times, Bancel said in "no world" will the effectiveness of existing vaccines be on the same level as it was against the currently widespread delta variant. The Moderna CEO added that he thinks there will be a "material drop" in effectiveness but he didn't know how much and is waiting for the data on this. Bancel noted that the primary concerns about omicron are driven by the 32 mutations to the variant's spike protein that existing vaccines are designed to target. Bancel claimed that most experts thought such a highly mutated variant would not emerge for another year or two. Vaccine manufacturers like Moderna may need months to mass manufacture vaccines to specifically protect against the omicron variant,