In a January 25, 2021 press release Moderna announce the “waning immunity” potential of their COVID-19 vaccine against mutating SARS-CoV-2 variants, in particular to the South African variant B.1.351 which is later called Beta. [1]
“Out of an abundance of caution and leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa into the clinic to determine if it will be more effective to boost titers against this and potentially future variants.” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, confirming talk from earlier in the month about boosters.
Moderna announced they will:
- First, “test an additional booster dos0 “of its current COVID-19 Vaccine (mRNA-1273) to study the ability to further increase neutralizing titers against emerging strains beyond the existing primary vaccination series.
- Second, they would begin “an emerging variant booster candidate (mRNA-1273.351) against the B.1.351 variant…into preclinical studies and a Phase 1 study in the U.S. to evaluate the immunological benefit of boosting with strain-specific spike proteins.
- Moderna expects either one will “further boost neutralizing titers in combination with all of the leading vaccine candidates.”