Moderna says its Covid-19 vaccine effective against South Africa, UK variants

The US biotechnology firm said that the two-dose regimen of its Covid-19 vaccine at the 100 microgram dose is expected to be protective against emerging strains.

US biotechnology company Moderna Inc announced on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine will be effective against the new variants of coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Moderna, known for its messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, said that the two-dose regimen of its Covid-19 vaccine at the 100 microgram dose is expected to be protective against emerging strains detected to date.

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said that the company is advancing the emerging variant booster candidate out of “abundance of caution.” (REUTERS)

The company, however, will test an additional booster dose of its vaccine mRNA-1273 to study the ability to further increase neutralising activity against emerging strains. It is also advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant B.1.351, first identified in South Africa. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement that the company is advancing the emerging variant booster candidate out of “abundance of caution.”

“As we seek to defeat the Covid-19 virus...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,” said Bancel.

The virus variants have triggered concerns among the health experts and scientific community at a time when governments around the world are trying to contain the pandemic through immunisation. Oxford professor Anthony Harnden, who serves as deputy chair of a scientific committee on vaccination, told Sky News that the new variants are a “real worry” because Covid-19 vaccines may not be effective against them.

“The South African and the Brazilian Amazonian ones, there are hints that there will be vaccine escape," he had warned.

The South African variant was first identified in Nelson Mandela Bay in samples dating back to the beginning of October 2020, and the variant also was identified in Zambia in late December 2020. UK health secretary Matt Hancock had earlier said that he was “incredibly worried about the South African variant” of the coronavirus, calling it “even more of a problem” than the new UK strain.