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Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna said on Wednesday that it shipped a new version of its already-authorized Covid-19 vaccine to testing sites. The new vaccine is part of a three-pronged strategy the company is adopting to combat new variants that make Sars-CoV-2 more infectious, Time Magazine reports.
The American company plans to test this version on participants in the first trials of the original vaccine, vaccinated six to twelve months ago, as well as in unvaccinated individuals.
Moderna is investigating adding a third dose after the current two-dose regimen of Moderna's vaccine, which has emergency use clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). «The company’s earlier data showed that while its original vaccine continued to provide sufficient protection against COVID-19 disease caused by the major known faster-spreading mutations, that protection was diminished somewhat against one of the variants that was first identified in South Africa, known as B.1.351.», it explains.
The company is also testing two new vaccines. The first is developed specifically against the South African variant and based on mRNA technology, which allows the company to rapidly develop new versions simply by modifying the genetic information programmed into the vaccine. In initial trials, Moderna will test this new vaccine as a third dose after two doses of the original vaccine have been administered.
Moderna’s scientists are also testing another new vaccine that combines the original and the new version designed to protect against the B.1.351 variant and which would also be used as a third dose after two doses of the original vaccine.
Moderna also plans to study these two new vaccines as stand-alone vaccines to test their effectiveness against the South African variant.
These studies are carried «out of caution», said the company, recalling that its original vaccine still offers strong protection against the Covid-19 disease.
