Drugmakers Hunt for One Vaccine to Target All Covid Variants

Scientists fear the omicron shots coming this fall won’t be much better at keeping people from getting Covid-19 than what’s come before. That’s pushing drugmakers to start working on next-generation vaccines that don’t have to be updated that often, if at all.

Testing shows that omicron-specific vaccines under development at Moderna Inc. and the partnership of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE will be “little or no better” than the currently available boosters, according to John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

“The benefit of switching composition is barely detectable,” Moore said.

Both Moderna ...