Japan’s health ministry on Tuesday approved the first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine that works against the currently circulating XBB.1.5 sublineage of the omicron variant.
The XBB-adapted version of Daiichi-Sankyo’s coronavirus vaccine, Daichirona, will be available as a booster under the nation’s free COVID-19 vaccination program beginning next week.
The government has already decided to procure a total of 1.4 million doses of the vaccine from the drugmaker, the first Japanese firm to have developed COVID-19 shots.