New Variant JN.1 Target Vaccine Expected from October
With COVID-19 spreading globally once again, updated vaccines are expected to be available this fall. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and related industries, vaccinations with these updated vaccines will begin this fall.
Recently, as the coronavirus is on the rise again, the number of confirmed cases is increasing. The number of cases of reinfection among people who have already had the coronavirus is also increasing.
Accordingly, the updated mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are attracting attention. These vaccines are expected to be released in the United States as early as this month.
The vaccine scheduled for introduction in Korea is the new variant (JN.1) vaccine, developed to respond to prevalent variants. This vaccine has been secured by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency for high-risk groups such as those aged 65 and older.
However, it’s important to note that the predominant variant in Korea recently is the KP.3 variant, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant virus. While the currently available vaccine (XBB.1.5) is effective against the KP.3 variant, the new JN.1 vaccine is even more effective.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initially recommended targeting the JN.1 variant for vaccines but later recommended focusing on the KP.2 strain after reviewing updated case data.
These updated vaccines have been shown to be more effective in protecting against the JN strain. Moderna’s KP.2 vaccine was found to be up to eight times more effective against the JN variant than the XBB.1.5 vaccine.