Moderna Vaccine Booster Injection Can Increase Antibodies Against COVID-19 Variants

Illustration of the Moderna vaccine, (Wikimedia Commons / Senior Airman / Eugene Oliver)

JAKARTA - COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna announced on Wednesday May 5 that a new vaccine candidate or the third dose of the current COVID-19 vaccine has shown that it is able to increase immunity against the COVID-19 variant that was first discovered in Brazil and South Africa, in trials. early.

The booster injection, given to volunteers who were previously inoculated with the Moderna two-dose vaccine regimen, also increases antibodies to the original version of COVID-19, Moderna said.

The preliminary data comes from a 40-person trial that tested an existing Moderna vaccine and a version developed to protect against a South African variant of COVID-19 called mRNA-1273.351. Moderna is also studying injections that combine new and existing vaccines.

The results showed that while booster injections of both versions of the vaccine increased antibodies to all the COVID-19 variants tested in the trials. The new booster had a greater response to the South African variant than the original vaccine.

"We are encouraged by this new data, which reinforces our belief that our booster strategy must protect against the newer variant of COVID-19," explained Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel in a statement as reported by Reuters, Thursday 6 May.

To note, the new variant of COVID-19 which was first discovered in South Africa and Brazil is considered to be more resistant to existing vaccines. Both variants have been detected in the United States, but cover only a fraction of US cases so far, according to federal data last updated in April.

Moderna hopes to share additional data soon on another potential booster shot, which mixes the existing COVID-19 vaccine with the newly developed injection.

"US government scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are conducting a separate early stage study of mRNA-1273,351," added Moderna.