Moderna expects its coronavirus vaccine to safeguard against UK virus variant

American pharma giant Moderna Inc has said that it expects its COVID-19 vaccine to safeguard patients against the new mutated coronavirus reported in the United Kingdom (UK). The biotech company informed that it is mulling running additional tests in the coming weeks to confirm the vaccine's effectiveness against any strain.

"Moderna expects that the immunity induced by its COVID-19 vaccine would be protective against coronavirus variants reported in the United Kingdom (UK)," Moderna said in its statement.

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"We plan to run tests to confirm the activity of the vaccine against any strain," it added in the release. Basis the data to date, Moderna expects that the immunity induced by its coronavirus vaccine, which was recently granted the US emergency use authorisation, will be protective against SARS-CoV-2 virus' variant, recently found in the UK.

Moderna's comments came amid the British government's plan to place huge swathes of England under its strictest COVID-19 restrictions as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country.

"We have already tested sera from animals and humans vaccinated with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine against a number of previous variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have emerged since the first outbreak of the pandemic and found our vaccine to remain equally effective," Moderna said.

Meanwhile, the far-sighted statements made by the company are predicated on current expectations and do not assure the success of the vaccine against the new mutated virus.

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