Asian Tech Press (Nov 19) -- U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc. said Sunday that it may launch a reformulated vaccine against the Omicron COVID-19 variant early next year.

Moderna's chief medical officer Paul Burton said, "We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks."

"If we have to make a brand new vaccine I think that's going to be early 2022 before that's really going to be available in large quantities," He added.

Moderna previously announced plans to address the Omicron variant, including a new vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.529. The company said it is testing three existing COVID-19 vaccine booster candidates against the Omicron variant.

Omicron (B.1.1.529) has been classified by the World Health Organization as a "variant of concern (VOC)", which contains more than 30 changes to the spike protein — the SARS-CoV-2 protein that recognizes host cells and is the main target of the body's immune responses.

Officials warned that many of these mutations could lead to increased resistance to antibodies and transmission, which could limit the effectiveness of existing COVID-19 vaccines.