French drugmaker Sanofi said on Monday (June 13) an upgraded version of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate it is developing with GSK showed potential in two
trials to protect against the virus's main variants of concern, including the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains, when used as a booster shot.
While the two companies' first experimental Covid shot is undergoing review by the European Medicines Agency, Sanofi and GSK have continued work on a vaccine that
is moulded on the now-supplanted Beta variant, hoping still that it will confer broad protection against future viral mutations.
Sanofi said this new vaccine candidate was shown to significantly boost antibody levels against a number of variants of concern, when given to trial participants
who had an initial course of mRNA vaccines, a type made by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna.
In a separate trial conducted by a French hospitals network, Sanofi's Beta-adapted booster shot triggered a higher immune response than Sanofi's first-generation
shot or Pfizer-BioNTech's established vaccine in previously vaccinated volunteers.