Washington:
US biotechnology firm Moderna on Monday mentioned lab research showed its Covid-19 vaccine would stay protective against variants of the coronavirus initially identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
But out of caution, the organization will test adding a second booster of its vaccine — to make 3 shots in total — and has begun preclinical research on a booster especially for the South African variant.
“We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should be protective against these newly detected variants,” mentioned Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO.
“Out of an abundance of caution and leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa into the clinic.”
To study the effect of the current vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, Moderna took blood samples from eight folks who had received two doses of the vaccine, and two primates that had also been immunized.
For the B.1.1.7 variant, initially identified in the UK, there was no effect on the level of neutralizing antibodies — which bind to the virus and stop it from invading human cells — that have been created by the shots.
But for the South African variant, B.1.351, there was a sixfold reduction in the neutralizing antibody level.
Even so, it remained above the quantity that was shown to be protective in earlier tests on primates that have been infected on objective.
The organization, which carried out the research with the National Institutes of Health, has submitted the study to a preprint server so it can be analyzed by the wider scientific neighborhood.
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