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WASHINGTON: The American biotech firm Moderna said on Monday (January 25) that laboratory studies showed that its COVID-19 vaccine would remain protective against variants of the coronavirus first identified in the UK and South Africa.
But as a precaution, the company will test adding a second booster to its vaccine, to make three injections in total, and has begun preclinical studies on a booster specifically for the South African variant after tests showed that the vaccine can produce an antibody response. diminished.
The current regimen is for two injections, four weeks apart. The company said in a press release that it was being cautious and that the two-dose regimen of the vaccine was still expected to protect against the South African and other variants detected to date.
“We are encouraged by this new data, which reinforces our confidence that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine should protect against these newly detected variants,” said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.
“Out of great caution and taking advantage of the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging boost candidate variant in the clinic against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa.”
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To study the impact of the existing vaccine, called mRNA-1273, Moderna took blood samples from eight people who had received two doses of the vaccine and primates who had also been immunized.
For the B117 variant, first identified in the UK, there was no impact on the level of neutralizing antibodies, which bind to the virus and prevent it from invading human cells, which were produced by the injections.
But for the South African variant, B1351, there was a six-fold reduction in the level of neutralizing antibodies.
Still, it remained above the amount that was shown to be protective in previous tests in primates that were purposely infected.
The company, which conducted the studies with the National Institutes of Health, has sent the study to a prepress server so that it can be analyzed by the scientific community at large.
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