MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) The US company of Moderna, Inc. said it had sent its vaccine against the South African strain of the coronavirus to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Phase 1 clinical trial.
"Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines, announces that it has completed manufacturing of clinical trial material for its variant-specific vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.351, against the SARS-CoV-2 variant known as B.1.351 first identified in the Republic of South Africa, and has shipped doses to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Phase 1 clinical trial that will be led and funded by the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)," the company said in a statement on late Wednesday.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 112.52 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 2.49 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The mutated strain was first detected in South Africa last October and since then has spread to Europe. It is believed to be more contagious than the original coronavirus.
