Everest Medicines and Providence Therapeutics (Providence) jointly announced that the companies have started working on a new version of COVID-19 vaccine specifically targeting the new Omicron variant. Scientists from the two companies have analyzed the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, selected viral sequences, and designed plasmid clones. The company expected the new Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant vaccines can be advanced into clinical testing in less than 100 days.