(Reuters) – Moderna Inc. said on Monday it had dosed the first patients in an early-stage study of a new candidate vaccine COVID-19 for its potential evaluation as a booster injection.
The company said that its new candidate, mRNA-1283, could potentially be stored in refrigerators instead of freezers, facilitating distribution, especially in developing countries.
The early-stage study will evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of mRNA-1283 at three dose levels, and will be administered to healthy adults as a single dose or in two doses 28 days apart, the company said.
Last week, Moderna began administering the first participants in a study that tests its candidate COVID-19 booster vaccines.
Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla and Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Anil D’Silva