According to analysts from JP Morgan in its 2022 forecasts, the threat of the Omicron variant may be overblown, and the market’s reaction to the variant scare has been swift. The biotech sector is responding with new developments already underway from companies such as Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX), and Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE), as well as Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX).

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

In early 2022, Moderna expects its Omicron COVID-19 vaccine could be ready to go, if it is needed.

“The remarkable thing about the mRNA vaccines, Moderna platform is we can move very fast,” said Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Paul Burton, in an interview with the BBC.

According to Burton, Moderna should know whether their current COVID-19 vaccine can provide protection against Omicron in the “next couple weeks.” However, he suspects that Omicron may escape that protection given the 30 mutations of the variant — nine of which are known to be “associated with immune escape.”

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX)

BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told Reuters that his company should be able to adapt its coronavirus vaccine relatively quickly—and that over the next few weeks we’ll see how urgently such an upgrade is needed.

"I believe in principle at a certain timepoint we will need a new vaccine against this new variant,” said Sahin. “The question is how urgent it needs to be available. We anticipate that infected people who have been vaccinated will still be protected against severe disease."

According to Sahin, a product relaunch could be achieved within approximately 100 days, and that a redesign is currently underway. Any confirmation of protection from the existing shot could buy developers such as BioNTech SE and partners Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE) some time for a more measured approach.

Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Pfizer expects its vaccine to hold up to Omicron, according to Ralf Rene Reinert, Vice President of Vaccines for International Developed Markets.

“We don’t expect that there will be a significant drop in effectiveness,” said Reinert in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “But again, this is speculation. We will check this. We will have the data in the next couple of weeks.”

Pfizer recently released follow-up data from its Phase 3 trial of its Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine support safety and high efficacy in adolescents 12-15 years of age.

"As the global health community works to increase the number of vaccinated people around the world, these additional data provide further confidence in our vaccine’s safety and effectiveness profile in adolescents. This is especially important as we see rates of COVID-19 climbing in this age group in some regions, while vaccine uptake has slowed," said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer. "We look forward to sharing these data with the FDA and other regulators."

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Perhaps ahead of the Spring or early 2022 dates put forth by other groups, Novavax could potentially have an Omicron-specific COVID vaccine ready by January—which unlike Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna isn’t an mRNA vaccine, but is built through a protein subunit vaccine, which involves engineering host cells (in this case cells from a moth) to produce large quantities of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. These proteins are then harvested and shaped into a structure that resembles a coronavirus.

“The initial steps required to manufacture an Omicron-specific spike are underway and GMP manufacturing in a commercial facility is anticipated in January 2022,” said Novavax in a company statement. “Lab-based assessment of a new strain-matched nanoparticle vaccine will begin within a few weeks.”