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Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine may not respond as well against South African variant

By Chris Newmarker | January 25, 2021

Moderna

Moderna Logo (PRNewsFoto/Moderna Therapeutics)

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) announced today that it will start a Phase 1 study in the U.S. of an emerging variant vaccine booster candidate against a new COVID-19 variant out of South Africa. The company will also test an additional booster of its present vaccine.

The Cambridge, Mass.–based company said it has observed a sixfold reduction in neutralizing antibodies that its COVID-19 vaccine produces against the South African variant compared to earlier strains. But it still expects the two-dose regimen of its vaccine to be protective against emerging strains detected to date.

The in vitro neutralization studies, which involved sera from individuals vaccinated with Moderna’s vaccine, found no significant reduction in neutralizing antibodies related to the variant that has emerged out of the U.K.

In general, the question of how emerging variants impact vaccine efficacy is an unsettled, although it is possible they could lead to a “numerically meaningful drop,” according to one virologist.

“As we seek to defeat the COVID-19 virus, which has created a worldwide pandemic, we believe it is imperative to be proactive as the virus evolves. We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should be protective against these newly detected variants,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a news release.

“Out of an abundance of caution and leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa into the clinic to determine if it will be more effective to boost titers against this and potentially future variants.”

 


Filed Under: Infectious Disease
Tagged With: coronavirus, covid-19, Moderna, Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
 

About The Author

Chris Newmarker

Chris Newmarker is the executive editor of WTWH Media life science's news websites and publications including MassDevice, Medical Design & Outsourcing and more. A professional journalist of 18 years, he is a veteran of UBM (now Informa) and The Associated Press whose career has taken him from Ohio to Virginia, New Jersey and, most recently, Minnesota. He’s covered a wide variety of subjects, but his focus over the past decade has been business and technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email at cnewmarker@wtwhmedia.com.

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