US Biotech Firms Novavax, Inovio Developing Vaccines Against New 'Omicron' COVID Variant

US-based biotech firm Novavax on Friday (26 November) announced that it has started working on a Covid-19 vaccine against the B.1.1.529 variant of Coronavirus that was recently detected in South Africa and has been named 'Omicron' by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The company has said that it would have a shot prepared for testing and manufacturing purposes in the coming few weeks.

The Covid-19 shot of the company comprises of an actual version of the spike protein of the virus that cannot cause the disease but instead triggers the immune system, reports Indian Express.

Novavax is now developing a spike protein specifically based on the known genetic sequence of the newly-discovered variant.

Meanwhile, other vaccine developers like Germany's BioNTech and US-based Johnson & Johnson have said that they are testing the effectiveness of their vaccines against the ‘Omicron’ variant.

Similarly, Inovio Pharmaceuticals has also begun testing its vaccine candidate INO-4800’s effectiveness against the new variant. It will take about a couple of weeks for the testing process to complete.

The company is also designing a new vaccine candidate that will be specifically targeting the Omicron variant.