New Delhi: Paul Berton, Chief Medical Officer of Moderna Inc said that he suspected the new variant would render the existing vaccines ineffective and if that would happen, a new vaccine could be available early next year.
During an interview with BBC on Sunday, Berton said, "We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks."
"If we have to make a brand new vaccine, I think that's going to be early 2022 before that's really going to be available in large quantities," he said.
"The remarkable thing about the mRNA vaccines, the Moderna platform, is that we can move very fast," Berton said.
The Moderna chief said that the best protection right now is to take the vaccines that are available.
“If people are on the fence, and you haven't been vaccinated, get vaccinated. This is a dangerous-looking virus, but I think we have many tools in our armamentarium now to fight it," he added.
Moderna in a press release on Friday said that the company was testing the current vaccines against the Omicron variant. "Since early 2021, Moderna has advanced a comprehensive strategy to anticipate new variants of concern. The company has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to advance new candidates to clinical testing in 60 to 90 days," the company said in its release.
The Omicron variant was declared as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation.