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BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) (OTCPK:SFOSF) said their mono and bivalent COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty was approved in Hong Kong for people 12 years and older.
The Health Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China approved the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine (also known as Comirnaty Original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5) as a booster dose and monovalent COVID-19 vaccine (also known as BNT162b2 or Comirnaty Original).
The monovalent vaccine had received emergency use authorization in Hong Kong in March 2021.
BioNTech said Comirnaty Original/Omicron BA.4/BA.5 is the first and currently only variant-adapted vaccine available as a booster dose for individuals 12 years and older which has been granted approval in Hong Kong.
The German company said data from an ongoing phase 2/3 trial showed that a booster dose of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine elicited substantially higher immune responses against Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sub-lineages and emerging Omicron sub-lineages compared to the monovalent vaccine.
The bivalent vaccine contains 15-µg of mRNA encoding for the spike-protein of the wild-type of SARS-CoV-2 and 15-µg of mRNA encoding for the spike protein of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sub-lineages of SARS-CoV-2, according to the companies.
BioNTech added that the monovalent COVID vaccine is approved as a primary course of vaccination for those aged 12 years and above.
A day ago, BioNTech and Fosun said they provided ~11.5K doses of the mRNA COVID vaccine in the Chinese Mainland to enable vaccination for German expatriates.
Image and article originally from seekingalpha.com. Read the original article here.