WASHINGTON — US biotech firm Moderna said Wednesday that doses of its new Covid-19 vaccine candidate aimed at the South African coronavirus variant had been shipped to the US National Institutes of Healthfor testing.
“We look forward to beginning the clinical study of our variant booster and are grateful for the NIH’s continued collaboration to combat this pandemic,” saidCEO Stephane Bancel.
The South African variant is considered among the more dangerous of current mutations because it evades some of the blocking action of antibodies that target the older coronavirus strain.
That means people who were infected with the classic strain are more susceptible to reinfection, and r…
Keep on reading: Moderna S. Africa variant-specific vaccine ready for testing—company