COVID-19 vaccines given new monikers in Canada

Health Canada announced the Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines have been given new names.

New brand names for the vaccines have been approved at the request of the drug companies.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has now been dubbed Comirnaty, which the company says represents a combination of the terms COVID-19, mRNA, community, and immunity.

The Moderna vaccine will go by SpikeVax and the AstraZeneca vaccine will be named Vaxzevria.

Health Canada points out the vaccines themselves are not changing — only the names are.

The new names are already being used for promotional purposes in the EU and the United States.