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An early clinical trial recently showed that the new Moderna COVID-19 booster could be an effective shield against the variants of coronavirus originally found in South Africa and Brazil.
According to ScienceAlert, the American biotech company began to develop variant-specific boosters earlier this year after evidence that several variants of COVID-19 can break through present vaccines.
This is Moderna s pioneering clinical trial in humans, following early trials on mice, and so far, the results are found promising.
Stephen Bancel, Moderna CEO said in a press release the company posted on its website, they are encouraged by this new date, which strengthens their confidence that their booster scheme should be protective against the said newly-identified variants.
Moderna s booster shot for COVID variants shows promising effectiveness in protecting people against the South African COVID variant.
Early data from Moderna s Phase 2 clinical trials show that a third dose increased levels of antibodies against the virus.
The booster was administered eight months after the participants had been initially vaccinated, according to an NBC News report. Our mRNA platform allows for rapid design of vaccine candidates that incorporate key virus mutations, potentially allowing for faster development of future alternative variant-matched vaccines should they be needed, Moderna s chief executive officer, Stephen Bancel, was quoted in a report.
Bancel added that the results are promising, noting that the vaccine s mRNA technology with speed and precision in protecting against the virus.