Moderna Making Vaccine Booster Shot to Protect Against South African Covid-19 Strain

[Taka]

Moderna Making Vaccine Booster Shot to Protect Against South African Covid-19 Strain

Moderna is the first developer of a Covid-19 vaccine to announce a program to update its vaccine to protect against one of the newly-identified strains.

www.barrons.com

Moderna is developing an experimental booster dose of its Covid-19 vaccine to help protect against the new strain of coronavirus identified in South Africa, the company said Monday.

The company is the first developer of a vaccine to announce a program to update its vaccine to protect against one of the newly-identified strains of Covid-19 now spreading around the world.

"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 Moderna's CEO, Stéphane Bancel, in a statement Monday.

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In a White House press conference on Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that current vaccines would likely be less effective against the South African strain.

Moderna (MRNA) said Monday that laboratory tests of blood from people who had received its original vaccine suggest that the vaccine should be just as effective against the strain that first emerged in the U.K. as it was against earlier versions of the virus. That echoes similar findings from Pfizer about its vaccine.

But Moderna also said that tests of its vaccine were less reassuring against the South African strain. While the lab tests did suggest that the vaccine would offer some protection against the strain, it doesn't appear to work as well as it did against other versions of the virus.

"Pseudovirus neutralizing antibody titers were approximately 6-fold lower relative to prior variants," the company wrote in a press release. "These lower titers may suggest a potential risk of earlier waning of immunity" to the South African strain.

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The company said it would run a Phase 1 study of the new booster shot in the U.S. It said it expected the booster to work not only in patients who had been initially inoculated with its vaccine, but also "in combination with all of the leading vaccine candidates."

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The news came hours after Merck (MRK) announced it was scrapping its Covid-19 vaccine programs after they turned up disappointing results in Phase 1 trials.

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[ginger ninja]

Post launch updates for vaccines. What a time to be alive.

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Cool, hope they can pull it off

 

[Kernel]

Post launch updates for vaccines. What a time to be alive.

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Moderna COVID Vaccine 1.0 SP1

 

[smileyforall220]

Considering manyfacturers are having trouble even delivering their initial shipments to countries right now, I don't have high hopes of this coming anytime soon.

 

[kaytra]

i should probably order the season pass

 

[maxxpower]

We're letting this covid run free, how many more booster shots will be needed for all the different strains? Containment is just as important as vaccines right now.

 

[tareqsalah]

Yeah, they will never cure this. They can just claim new strands and sell vaccines for decades. It will be the new flushot.

 

[LifeIsKillingMe]

So, how many shots does that make for me to get now? I've been told I'm "months" away from getting one per Kaiser, and as I totally get that because I'm not essential (totally fine with that obviously) I'm feeling like everyone gonna be running around this summer all roided up and immune to everything and I'll have to go around in one of those plastic safety bubbles.

 

[Shevek]

I wonder if they'll charge South Africa 2x as much for each vaccine shot as what they're charging Europe and other first world nations, just like they're doing with AstraZeneca and the Pfizer vaccine.

 

[Deleted member 2210]

Yeah, they will never cure this. They can just claim new strands and sell vaccines for decades. It will be the new flushot.

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Nah, don't do this.

 

[Poltergust]

Yeah, they will never cure this. They can just claim new strands and sell vaccines for decades. It will be the new flushot.

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What do you mean "claim"? This virus has infected millions of people. Of course it would eventually mutate into something more dangerous with so many opportunities for it to replicate itself.

 

[Afrikan]

i should probably order the season pass

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Imma wait for the Complete Edition.

 

[Kayla]

im going to need more than 667gb of storage for this

 

[Soundscream]

Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Retains Neutralizing Activity Against Emerging Variants First Identified in the U.K. and the Republic of South Africa COVID

Good news after some conflicting reports that the vaccines would work less effectively against the new mutants. They're also creating a "booster" dose to combat some of the new variants...

www.resetera.com

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[Neo C.]

Wow, I didn't expect that huge effectivity drop to the new strain. The return to normalcy is postponed indefinitely.

 

[100%TrophyMaster]

I'm in for the mRNA South African Protein Binding armor DLC but only if they include the P1 Brazil variant armor as a free bonus.

 

[SmokeMaxX]

Wow, I didn't expect that huge effectivity drop to the new strain. The return to normalcy is postponed indefinitely.

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The drop seems drastic, but other articles I've read said it should still provide sufficient protection. Just not as much as what it's specifically targeted against.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Post launch updates for vaccines. What a time to be alive.

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patch notes and all.

 

[Jmdajr]

Truly some great post launch DLC.

 

[Lishi]

Post launch updates for vaccines. What a time to be alive.

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It's more like a DLC.