Moderna Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the protection of a booster shot against Omicron and the need to improve vaccination rates.

Video Transcript

KARINA MITCHELL: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance. Well, Moderna has dosed the first participant in its phase two clinical trial of an omicron-specific booster. Here with more on that and its battle against COVID is Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, along with Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani. Dr. Burton, thank you so much. We all really appreciate your being here today.

I want to start off by asking you, what do we know about the longevity of antibody protection tied to the current booster against omicron versus other variants?

PAUL BURTON: Yes, so good afternoon. We presented some data on Wednesday evening in the "New England Journal of Medicine" that looked at the antibody response in people about six months after they had received the booster. What this data show is that, while there is still good protection, there is a waning of effect and certainly against omicron, which we would have expected given the mutations and the immune escape that that variant shows.

So we see-- we see protection still out at six months, but I think we have to make the assumption that that waning will continue. And that, coupled with the other data we have, leads us to begin, as you say, this phase two study to look at an omicron-specific booster because our prediction would be that people will need an additional booster dose, potentially in the fall of 2022.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Dr. Burton, Anjalee here. The reason why, of course, you have to pursue this booster is because we continue to see the pandemic really rage across the world because of the remaining unvaccinated in many countries right now. We know that there are some portions of the world that still need vaccines. What can you tell us about how distribution is going there as well as places where you still need to reach?

PAUL BURTON: Yes, Anjalee, as you say, I mean, omicron exploded. We've had days of, you know, a million plus Americans being infected, 500,000 people in France in a single day. Of course, there's also this so-called stealth variant of omicron that has now started to take hold Europe, India, Singapore, here in the US. So omicron is certainly something to be concerned about.

We are getting good supply. We're getting certainly good supply of the vaccine into other parts of the world. But as you said, probably omicron came out of unvaccinated/undervaccinated individuals, potentially with immunocompromise. So the more that we can get people primary boosted, primary vaccinated, primary boosted, clearly the better.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Dr. Burton, Alexis here. When does this pandemic move to an endemic, and what does that look like? Do you anticipate COVID being seasonal like the flu, and you anticipate us needing to get an annual or, dare we say, biannual vaccine?

PAUL BURTON: Yes, so our assumption at the moment is that we will not eradicate the SARS-COV-2 virus. And what it's shown us all along-- omicron, now this subvariant-- is that it's a virus that's able to make very large evolutionary steps very quickly that can't be predicted.

We need to cover delta. We don't talk about delta much anymore, but it's definitely out there at about the same level as it was, and that's what's causing a lot of hospitalization and death. Omicron as well causes hospitalization and death, but its major problem is escape and just bulk of infected people, which brings systems to their knees. So we need something that can cover both delta, other variants, and omicron as well.

We think we can produce that vaccine. The platform-- you know, the power of the platform, the mRNA platform we have, its agility and ability to do that quickly, and we've shown that just two months from omicron coming to the fore, now testing it in humans. And I would say and we predict that we will need a yearly booster, much like flu. And, in fact, our ambition is to be able to couple a COVID and flu vaccine all in one, one lipid nanoparticle. People can go get that single vaccination and be protected for both diseases. We'll start that research later this year and hopefully bring that out in the winter of 2023.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Dr. Burton, could you give us an update on what's going on with the kids' vaccines? I know you're still waiting for some data for the younger cohort, and you've also been asked to kind of go back and tweak the trial for the adolescent group. So just wanting to know-- you know, to the point of the agility of the platform, it still hasn't been able to come to fruition. What can you tell us about the complexities there?

PAUL BURTON: So look, children, particularly with omicron, I think what we've seen there is they're disproportionately impacted, high rates of hospitalization, certainly high rates of infection. So for omicron, it's a higher medical need. We definitely need a vaccine for those youngest children.

We are authorized for adolescents in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, many other countries around the world. We've published some safety data there. The vaccine continues to show excellent efficacy and safety.

We are working with the FDA both on the adolescents and on the younger children 5 to 11. And, you know, they're doing a very thorough review. We work with them. We're eager to get that approved. As you say, we're looking at different dosing schedules there.

But I think for those two-- to five-year-olds, that study is now fully enrolled, will be complete in the coming weeks. And it uses a 25-microgram dose. So we're able to tailor the dose. If we see the same degree of efficacy as we've seen in the other age groups with acceptable safety, we're hopeful that we'll be able to take that to regulators and then meet that unmet need and get those little kids vaccinated.

KARINA MITCHELL: Dr. Burton, there are so many costs associated with R&D. How expensive is it to sort of chase after these variants because we'll always come from behind, right, and is it actually worthwhile to come up with specific vaccines for, you know, all the different variations that could come up?

PAUL BURTON: Look, I think it's a great question. It really is a central one. Do we try and predict where the puck is going or follow?

Look, I think for now we have to have insurance and reassurance as we go into the fall to be able to protect against omicron. It's going to be around. It could come back. The subvariant of it will come back. Delta is likely going to be here.

So the pragmatic thing that we have to do this year is to be able to protect Americans/people around the world against death and hospitalization. That's the vaccine we're doing now. I think as we begin-- and we have the technology to be able to do this to make vaccines that have multiple different mRNA antigens in them.

Over time-- and it will be quick, but we'll be able to get deeper and broader protection and immune coverage against not only the current variants but then ones that emerge. So mRNA-1273 the current vaccine, is fantastic against delta. It's pretty good against omicron. Now we can add in omicron. So I think that's the strategy. Pragmatically, we'll get there, and it shouldn't take too long.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Dr. Burton, I wonder about full approval as well coming from the FDA. How does that or how would that help with, say, you know, misinformation and the antivax movement and et cetera? When you have a vaccine that's been widely used globally, do you find that that it still is an impediment, especially maybe with shipments or et cetera, globally, to have that approval not yet in?

PAUL BURTON: Look, I think it will give people confidence and reassurance to get full approval from a major health authority. One like the FDA will certainly be very reassuring.

But look, I think the sentiment around the world is that mRNA-1273 really is an exceptional vaccine. Time and time again, data comes out from independent groups-- not done by Moderna, independently done-- showing the really high efficacy against the original virus, against delta, and the safety is also excellent.

You know, there's a publication in "JAMA" this week. In 200 million people, the vaccine is now being used in 400 million doses around the world. These figures to me are unimaginable as a physician that we can have those kind of databases. So I think they give people confidence, and that is coming through in the use of the vaccine around the world.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, we're going to have to leave it there. Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, we appreciate your time today.