Moderna Starts Dosing Participants With COVID-19 Variant Booster

Moderna has announced that it has begun dosing trial participants with a modified COVID-19 vaccine meant to target the variant SARS-Cov-2 strain first identified in South Africa.

The new dosing will occur as part of an ongoing phase 2 study, the Cambridge, Mass., drugmaker said, with the trial enrolling 60 participants who previously received a shot of Moderna’s standard messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccine,

Moderna said participants will receive either a booster targeted at the South African variant or the company’s new multivalent vaccine candidate that targets both the original coronavirus strain and the variant strain.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health is planning a phase 1 trial evaluating the vaccine for the South African strain. That study aims to enroll 210 vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals and is expected to conclude in August 2022, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. ― Jason Scott