Health Canada approves a second vaccine targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants

UPGRADE DAY

Health Canada has approved the updated version of the COVID-19 Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech which targets the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron and whose use as a dose of booster is approved for people 12 years of age and older.

“Health Canada licensed this vaccine following a thorough and independent scientific review of the evidence, which demonstrated the safety and efficacy of this vaccine”, it was indicated in a press release on Friday.

According to the ministry, this new version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should present a similar safety profile to that of the original vaccine against COVID-19.

Recall that Moderna's bivalent vaccine has been available in Quebec since last month for protection against these same two variants.