Filenews 26 July 2024 - by Marilena Panayi
Vaccines that will cover both flu and coronavirus were made by pharmaceutical companies with one company, Moderna, now preparing to apply to secure the necessary approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The company's vaccine, which has already passed through Phase III clinical trials, appears to be more effective than existing vaccines for influenza and coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) for people over 50 years old, although its effectiveness remains high at younger ages.
As Christos Petrou, associate professor at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Nicosia, explained to philenews, "after the use of mRNA technology vaccines to treat the coronavirus and the encouraging results for the treatment of cancers, the company Moderna announced preliminary results for other applications as well".
"One such possible application is the combined Coronavirus-Flu vaccines and we must say that similar vaccines, but of a protein nature, are also being developed by the company Novavax," Petrou said.
"Combined vaccines can have great public health benefits, but they are often time-consuming and expensive to develop. They reduce the number of vaccines needed to protect against multiple diseases, and certainly simplifying vaccinations to fewer vaccines may make it more likely that citizens will be vaccinated more early. Both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 continue to circulate and evolve, and combining these vaccines into a single vaccine could offer protection against both diseases at the same time."
Moderna, he said, "recently announced that it has completed phase III clinical trials and appears to be more effective than competing flu and coronavirus vaccines at providing immunity to adults over 50. Moderna now plans to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to bring the vaccine to market."
"The results come from 8,000 volunteers, all over the age of 50, and half over 64. The company said it had focused on making vaccines for older people, but ultimately, it appears to be planning to offer the new vaccine to younger and vulnerable people. The study showed mild side effects in some people (a little pain, fatigue, etc.) as with standard vaccines."
Regarding the dual vaccine of Novavax, Mr. Petrou said that "preliminary results have also been announced for this vaccine which uses as antigens the full-length, stabilized recombinant spike protein (rS) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and 4 wild-type, recombinant hemagglutinin (rHA) proteins from the influenza virus".
