[ad_1]
(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc are testing their COVID-19 vaccines against the new, fast-spreading version of the virus that has emerged in Britain, CNN reported Tuesday.
Moderna hopes the immunity in its vaccine will protect against the variants and is conducting further tests in the coming weeks to confirm this, the company said in a statement to CNN. https://cnn.it/38qpbFl
Pfizer said it is “generating data” on how well blood samples from people immunized with its vaccine “can neutralize the new UK strain,” according to the report.
Pfizer and Moderna did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The discovery of the new strain sowed a new wave of panic in a pandemic that has killed around 1.7 million people and infected more than 77.15 million worldwide.
The main concern is that the new variant is 40% -70% more transmittable.
Scientists have said that there is no evidence that the vaccines currently being rolled out in the UK, made by Pfizer and BioNTech, or other COVID-19 injections in development, do not protect against this variant, known as the B lineage. 1.1.7.
(Report by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Edited by Sriraj Kalluvila)
[ad_2]
