Moderna said March 10 it has begun the first human trial of a modified version of its COVID-19 vaccine designed to combat a variant of the virus, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The drugmaker plans to enroll 60 people in the study, all of whom previously got both doses of the original vaccine. The volunteers will receive either the new vaccine designed to combat the virus variant first found in South Africa, called B.1.351, or a single shot that contains both the variant vaccine and original vaccine, according to the Journal.
Moderna will also test if giving volunteers a third dose of the original vaccine can protect against the variants. If data from the trial is positive, the drugmaker could seek regulatory approval in the third quarter, the Journal reported.
The National Institutes of Health is also planning to study Moderna's variant vaccine in people who didn't get the original vaccine, The Hill reported.
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