The company announced Wednesday that it has shipped doses of its variant-specific booster shot to the National Institutes of Health for clinical trials. This development is part of Moderna's efforts to counter strains of the coronavirus that are circulating and to get ahead of"Moderna is committed to making as many updates to our vaccine as necessary until the pandemic is under control," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.
Early studies found that Moderna's vaccine was less protective against the South African variant, but the company said the observed level of neutralizing antibodies — which can bind to viruses and block them from getting into cells — stayed above protective levels.
Cases of the U.K. variant have been reported in more than 80 countries and in more than half of the states in the U.S. The South African strain has been detected in at least 40 countries, including the U.S.
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