CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Moderna announced Monday that its current COVID-19 vaccine appears to work against two highly-transmissible coronavirus variants first detected in the U.K.
and South Africa. But researchers found that the vaccine may be less effective against the variant discovered in South Africa.As a precaution, Moderna is developing a new form of the vaccine against the variant that could be used as a booster against the virus.In a study, Moderna’s two-dose vaccine produced neutralizing antibodies against multiple variants, including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, which were first identified in the U.K.
and South Africa, respectively.The British variant had no impact on the level of neutralizing antibodies produced from the vaccination, the.