Moderna Says Coronavirus Vaccine's Effectiveness Will Likely Hold Against New SARS-CoV-2 Variants

As the world is threatened by the prospects of the SARS-CoV-2 mutating to produce new virulent strains, Moderna Inc MRNA has reassured there isn't a cause for concern.

What Happened: The vaccine-induced immunity from Moderna's coronavirus vaccine candidate – mRNA-1273 - will likely be protective against the new strain of SARS-CoV-2 recently described in the U.K., the Massachusetts-based company said in a late Wednesday statement.

The company based the deduction on data to date.

Testing of sera from animals and humans vaccinated with mRNA-1273 has already been done against a number of previous variants of SARS-CoV-2, and the vaccine remained equally effective.

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"The full-length Spike protein is 1,273 amino acids long, so while recent variants involve multiple mutations, for instance up to 8 amino acid changes in the spike protein of the B1.1.7 strain, these represent less than a 1% difference from the spike protein encoded by Moderna's vaccine," the company explained.

What's Next: Moderna said it plans to run tests to confirm the activity of the vaccine against any strain.

The broad range of potential neutralizing antibodies made possible by the mRNA-1273 provides confidence that it will also be effective at inducing neutralizing antibodies against them.

Moderna's investigational vaccine candidate emergency use authorization from the FDA on Dec. 18, and most recently Health Canada has authorized it for the immunization of people 18 years of age and older under an interim order.