U.K. Approves Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Targeted at Omicron

The U.K. became the first country to approve Moderna Inc.’s Omicron-targeting Covid-19 vaccine as a booster shot, paving the way for the variant shot to play a role in a planned fall vaccination campaign to shore up immune defenses against the virus. The so-called bivalent vaccine is directed against both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and the first Omicron variant, also known as BA.1, which drove large waves of infection over the winter. “What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armory to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve,” June Raine, chief executive of Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said Monday.