Hong Kong will have another choice of Covid-19 vaccine targeting Omicron, with drug maker BioNTech offering to make its second-generation jabs available locally as early as the third quarter of this year if approved by authorities, a pharmacist has told the Post.

The news came after the Post reported United States pharmaceutical giant Moderna’s was interested in selling 8 million doses of its Omicron-specific vaccine to the city in the fourth quarter of this year. It is in advanced discussions with the government on the application for emergency use.

“Both Moderna and BioNTech have the relevant data, which is internal and unpublished. They have submitted it to the World Health Organization and likely to the Department of Health for consideration,” the president of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong, William Chui Chun-ming, told the Post.