Moderna announced on Wednesday that the COVID-19 vaccine recently developed to deal with a new variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa is ready to be tested in humans in clinical trials.
Moderna in a press release said it sent the first batch of doses of the new jab to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to start a Phase 1 “clinical trial that will be conducted and funded by the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (NIAID). “
The new vaccine candidate, called mRNA-1273,351, was created to better address the South African variant after the company’s existing vaccine – the second COVID-19 vaccine to see the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency approval in the last year – was found to have reduced effectiveness against the mutation.
In a study published last week, the biotech giant said its existing COVID-19 jab was found to have a six-fold reduction in antibodies induced by the B.1.351 variant vaccine. (Despite this reduction, however, “the levels of neutralizing title with B.1.351 remain above the levels expected to be protective,” said the company.)
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Moderna said on Wednesday that it plans to study three variations of a booster. First, it will study the variant-specific jab, which will be given at a lower dose than its original vaccine and, as well as its original vaccine, will require FDA emergency use assessment and approval before it is distributed to the public, if the test results are promising.
Second, Moderna said it plans to study a combination of the original vaccine and the specific variant in a single injection of 50 micrograms or less. Finally, he will study the effects of a third dose of his original vaccine, but in a lower dosage.
“Moderna is committed to making as many updates to our vaccine as necessary until the pandemic is under control,” Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. “We hope to demonstrate that booster doses, if necessary, can be made at lower dose levels, which will allow us to deliver many more doses to the global community in late 2021 and 2022, if necessary.”
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The news of the reinforcement comes just a month after Moderna said it was working on one. As its first COVID-19 jab, the new vaccine candidate was also created using innovative mRNA technology.
In addition to Moderna, other vaccine manufacturers – including Pfizer, creator of the first COVID-19 vaccine to see emergency approval in the U.S., as well as Johnson & Johnson – said they are working on vaccines to better combat variants.