The head of drug producer Moderna said COVID-19 vaccinations are unlikely to be as successful against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been in the past, reigniting concern in financial markets over the pandemic's trajectory.
Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, has warned that it will take months before pharmaceutical companies can mass produce new variant-specific vaccines.
"I believe there is no world in which the effectiveness is as high as it was with Delta," Bancel told the Financial Times during an interview at the company's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Vaccine resistance might result in increased illness and hospitalizations, prolonging the pandemic, and Bancel's remarks sparked a sell-off in growth-sensitive assets such as oil, equities, and the Australian currency.
"I believe it will be a significant drop. I just don't know how much because we're awaiting statistics. However, every scientist I've spoken with is of the opinion that 'this is not going to work.'"
According to Bancel, any country that has welcomed passengers from southern African states in the last seven to 10 days is likely to have the Omicron variant.
The CEO stated that it will take at least a few weeks for the scientific community to gain a better understanding of vaccination efficacy and between two and six weeks to determine whether the new variety is more contagious than Delta.
However, Moderna is already developing boosters to combat Omicron, Bancel explained. Within a couple of weeks, he observed, the business will determine which method to follow - increasing the dose of currently available vaccines, administering a booster, or developing a new vaccine to address the variant.
Bancel stated that due to the high number of mutations on the protein spike used by the virus to enter human cells, the present crop of vaccines would almost certainly need to be updated.
Other public health specialists and politicians have attempted to strike a more optimistic tone regarding the efficacy of existing vaccines to offer protection against Omicron.
Scott Gottlieb, a board of Pfizer and a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC on Monday that vaccine circles have a decent degree of confidence in at least three doses.
"The patient will have a reasonable level of protection against this variety," he explained.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla echoed Bancel's sentiments. "At the moment, there are a lot of unknowns. Keep in mind that we have been ready for something along those lines for months," Bourla said of the possibility of a stronger COVID-19 variant emerging.
