German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he expected the European Medicines Agency to meet on September 1 to consider a vaccine that would provide protection against the original virus and the micron variant, also known as BA.1.
The EU agency will likely meet again on Sept. 27 to review a combined vaccine against the original virus and the BA.5 variant responsible for the latest global surge in COVID-19 cases, Lauterbach said.
Germany has procured sufficient quantities of both vaccines and will be able to start making them available one day after they receive approval, he said.
The US Food and Drug Administration has said that combination vaccines, known as “bivalent” or “multivalent” vaccines, will allow boosters to maintain the proven benefits of the original coronavirus vaccines while providing additional protection against new variants.
Such an approach is used with flu vaccines, which are adjusted each year based on circulating variants and can protect against four strains of flu.
Lauterbach, an epidemiologist by training, said the possibility that the coronavirus will continue to mutate remains high.
“There are still too many variants that could develop,” he said, noting the large number of infections worldwide, including in people with weakened immune systems who allow the virus to persist for months.
