Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine variant begins human testing

The subjects had previously received the standard two doses of Moderna’s original photo as part of a mid-term study that began last year. In the new part of the study, these adult volunteers will receive a booster injection containing Moderna’s modified vaccine, called mRNA-1273.351.

Moderna designed the modified shot to better target a highly transmissible strain of the virus that was first identified in South Africa and has spread elsewhere.

Some subjects will receive the variant vaccine alone during the mid-phase or phase 2 study, while others will receive a single injection, named mRNA-1273.211, containing both the variant and the original vaccines.

Moderna’s original Covid-19 vaccine, cleared in the United States in December, was highly effective in a large clinical study, but showed signs, in laboratory tests, of reduced potency against the variant identified in Africa from South.

Moderna said in January that her original vaccine still seemed to offer some protection against the strain, but as a precaution she embarked on a new vaccine that could be given as a booster or in various combinations with the vaccine. ‘origin.

Moderna and other companies are preparing for the need for modified vaccines capable of countering emerging variants of the virus. In addition to the strain identified in South Africa, other strains have been identified in the UK and Brazil that spread more easily than the earlier version of the virus.

Companies and researchers fear that the virus will continue to mutate to the point of escaping the immunity conferred by the original vaccines.

If Moderna’s vaccine variant tests are positive, it could seek U.S. regulatory clearance in the third quarter, the company said.

Moderna is also testing whether giving people a third dose of its original vaccine protects against variants.

More trials of the Moderna variant vaccine are on the horizon. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases plans to begin an early study, or phase 1, of the modified vaccine, in collaboration with researchers in Seattle, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Nashville. The study was scheduled to begin as early as this week, according to a publication last week on a federal study database.

Moderna manufactured and shipped doses of the variant vaccine for use in the NIAID trial in February.

Write to Peter Loftus at [email protected]