Moderna started testing a third COVID-19 vaccine, which aims to take on widespread variants, the company said on Friday.
What is happening?
Moderna began testing three variations of a booster injection among 60 participants, the company said.
Moderna said it would start with a vaccine specific to the variant, which will be administered in a lower dose than the original vaccine. This will be done to ensure that the vaccine works on its own.
- This new injection will require emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration before it is released to the public.
The company said it would study a combination of the original vaccine – the two doses that people started receiving – mixed with the new vaccine variant.
Finally, the company will study the vaccine specific to the variant, but in a larger volume. Again, this will be done to ensure that the reinforcement injection of the Modern variant can work on its own and is safe to distribute to people.
Moderna said: “Out of caution, Moderna is looking for a clinical development strategy against these emerging variants.”
Context
Moderna said in January that it would work on updating the COVID-19 vaccine to combat coronavirus variants so that they would not become more dominant in the United States, as I wrote for Deseret News. Moderna said in February that it would begin its new tests.