(AOF) – Moderna said on Monday that it had submitted an authorization request to the European Medicines Agency for a vaccine against the XBB.1.5 variant of Covid-19. “Our preliminary clinical tests have shown that our updated Covid-19 vaccine is effective in generating an immune response against the XBB variants of concern, and we believe it will play a critical role in protecting against serious illness and hospitalizations,” said said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.
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Loss of speed in European research
European research is losing ground to American and Chinese research. In twenty years, Europe’s share has fallen from 41% to 31% in global R&D. China’s share jumped from 1% to 8%. As for the United States, which supplanted Europe, in 2001 it devoted only 2 billion euros per year more than Europe to R&D, whereas now this gap has reached 25 billion! Some experts accuse the European authorities of not having deployed effective policies. The financing of pharmaceutical research should therefore have been better targeted via the “Horizon 2020” programme. France only comes in eighteenth position in European funding despite the quality of its research. Conversely, the United States concentrates funding on Boston and a few centers of excellence.