AFP, published on Saturday September 03, 2022 at 17:58 The British medicines regulator announced on Saturday that it had approved a new generation of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine targeting the Omicron variant. “bivalent”, half targeting the original strain of the virus and half the Omicron (BA.1) variant, MHRA said in a statement. It “has been approved for booster doses for adults by the MHRA which has concluded that it meets the safety, quality and efficacy standards of the British regulator”, indicated the medicine agency, which specifies authorizing the vaccine for adults. people aged 12 and over. In mid-August, the United Kingdom became the first country to authorize a similar vaccine developed by the Moderna laboratory and also targeting Omicron, the most widespread variant in Europe. The announcement comes as the country is preparing to offer a booster dose of the anti-Covid vaccine from Monday to millions of Britons in England and Scotland, in particular those over the age of 50, with priority given to people living in retirement homes. am pleased to announce that we now have a second vaccine approved for the booster program this fall,” said MHRA Director June Raine. The new Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been authorized in recent days by the United States and the European Medicines Agency. They are also targeting two rapidly spreading subvariants of the Omicron strain, BA.4 and BA.5. The United Kingdom is one of the countries most affected in Europe by the pandemic, with nearly 180,000 deaths since the start of 2020. While mortality has fallen sharply thanks to vaccination, the country regularly experiences large waves of contamination, but was one of the first in Europe to lift all restrictions last winter.