Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech SE will develop an mRNA-based vaccine for viral infection shingles, collaborating for the third time after the success of their COVID-19 vaccine based on the same technology.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on January 4 recommended shortening the interval between Pfizer-BioNTech’s second COVID-19 vaccine dose and the booster shot to five months from six.

BioNTech

BioNTech should be able to adapt the German company’s coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly in response to the Omicron variant, and the next few weeks will show how urgently an upgrade is needed, CEO Ugur Sahin told the Reuters Next conference on December 3.

BioNTech and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine will likely offer strong protection against any severe disease from the new Omicron virus variant, BioNTech’s Chief Executive told Reuters, as the firm weighs the need to upgrade its commonly used shot.

Moderna

BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are working on vaccines that specifically target Omicron in case their existing shots are not effective against the new coronavirus variant, the companies said on November 29.

BioNTech SE said on Monday the company had started work on a vaccine tailored to Omicron, the worrying new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa.

BioNTech

Germany’s BioNTech on November 19 was awarded fast track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the speedy review of a novel skin cancer therapy, which is based on RNA technology similar to the one that underpins the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The chief executive of Covid-19 vaccine pioneer BioNTech said he does not expect for now that new oral treatments against the viral infection would considerably reduce demand for vaccines.

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE asked U.S. regulators to authorize emergency use of their Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a group for whom no shot is allowed, Pfizer said on Oct. 7.

Johnson & Johnson submitted data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of a booster shot of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine in people aged 18 and older.