(Reuters) -Moderna Inc said on Wednesday it expects immunity induced by its COVID-19 vaccine to be protective against coronavirus variants reported in the UK.
The company said it plans to conduct tests to confirm vaccine activity against any strain.
Moderna’s comments came amid the British government’s plan to place large strips of England under its stricter restrictions on COVID-19 as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country.
The company said it expects its vaccine, which was recently granted US emergency use, to be protective against the UK variant according to data so far.
“We have already tested animal and human sera vaccinated with the Modern COVID-19 vaccine against several previous variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have emerged since the first outbreak of the pandemic and we have found that our vaccine remains the same as ‘effective,’ said Modern. (bit.ly/3pi3kqi)
The U.S.-based company said it would conduct additional tests for the vaccine in the coming weeks to confirm its expectations.
Reports from Manojna Maddipatla to Bengaluru; Edited by Maju Samuel