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Pfizer and BioNTech’s updated bivalent booster retains protection against new omicron sublineages

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bivalent COVID-19 vaccine

[Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (Nasdaq:BNTX) have announced that their omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent booster fared well against novel omicron variants in neutralizing antibody detection tests.

The company published the results from the bivalent booster tests against the BA.4.6, BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1 and XBB.1 subvariants on the preprint server BioRxiv.

One month after administering a fourth vaccine dose, the geometric means of neutralization titers from the bivalent BA.4/5 vaccine was generally superior to that of the monovalent BNT162b2 booster. Overall, the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine was associated with a 3.2- to 4.8-fold increase in neutralizing antibody titers relative to the original monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. For the BA.4.6, BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1 and XBB.1 omicron variants, antibody titers were up between 4.8- to 11.1-fold from pre-booster levels.

“These data suggest the bivalent BA.4/5 vaccine is more immunogenic than the original BNT162b2 monovalent vaccine against circulating Omicron sublineages, including BQ.1.1 that is becoming prevalent globally,” the study authors concluded.

CDC recently noted that BQ.1/BQ.1.1 subvariants were currently responsible for almost half of current U.S. COVID-19 infections.

Separately, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that it was developing the BNT162b4 vaccine candidate that encodes for SARS-CoV-2 non-spike proteins that could offer a superior immune response over its spike-protein-based vaccines.

In October, a preprint from researchers at Columbia indicated that the retooled bivalent boosters might not have significantly superior performance relative to the first-generation mRNA vaccines. Roughly three to five weeks after administration of the fourth vaccine dose with a bivalent mRNA vaccine, individuals had similar neutralizing antibody titers compared with those who had a fourth dose of monovalent vaccine against a range of variants, including BA.4/BA.5.

A Harvard preprint study reached similar conclusions.

In mid-day trading, Pfizer shares were mostly flat, holding steady at $48.29. BioNTech shares were up 0.34% to $166.82.

Filed Under: Infectious Disease, Uncategorized
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About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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