US begins testing Moderna’s Covid vaccine booster injections for South African variant

The National Institutes of Health has started testing a new vaccine against Moderna’s coronavirus designed to protect against a problematic variant first discovered in South Africa, the agency said on Wednesday.

The phase one trial, led and funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will test the safety and efficacy of the new vaccine against the variant – known as B.1.351 – in approximately 210 healthy adults, according to the agency.

The trial, which has already administered some of its first vaccines, will include around 60 adults who participated in Moderna’s original Covid-19 vaccine trials last year, as well as around 150 people who have yet to receive any Covid-19 vaccine, according to a statement.

Returning participants who received two injections of the original vaccine 28 days apart at varying doses early last year will go their separate ways.

Some of them will receive a single booster shot with the new vaccine at a higher dose, while others will receive the new vaccine at a lower dose, the statement said. The remaining participants will be offered a booster injection with the original vaccine “under a separate clinical trial protocol”.

The trial will recruit volunteers in the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Nashville and Seattle areas and is expected to be fully enrolled by the end of April, the agency said.

The B.1.351 variant first discovered in South Africa late last year has given scientists more cause for concern than other variants. The variant appears to spread more easily than the original “wild-type” strains and research indicates that it may escape some of the protections generated by therapeutics and vaccines.

So far, 312 cases of Covid-19 with variant B.1.351 have been identified in the United States, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Preliminary data shows that the COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States should provide an adequate level of protection against variants of SARS-CoV-2,” said the director of NIAID and chief medical adviser to the White House , Dr.Anthony Fauci, in a statement.

“However, out of caution, NIAID continued to partner with Moderna to evaluate this variant of the vaccine candidate for a need for an updated vaccine,” Fauci said.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has previously said it will speed up the approval process for updated vaccines that target troublesome variants, eliminating the need for lengthy clinical trials.

However, an independent safety oversight committee will continue to oversee the trials to ensure the shots are safe, according to the NIH statement.