Moderna announced Monday, January 25, that its vaccine against Covid-19 elicited, in laboratory studies, the production of antibodies against the variants of the coronavirus initially identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Experts expect the vaccine "to protect against variants detected on this date," she said after testing.

Moderna said, however, that she would work to develop an additional dose to further increase protection against these variants.

We just announced that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine retains neutralizing activity against emerging variants first identified in the UK and the Republic of South Africa.

Read more: https://t.co/UCCvX0PrKV pic.twitter.com/nCGl3hfhlU

- Moderna (@moderna_tx) January 25, 2021

The company nevertheless specifies that it will test a booster of the vaccine against the variant identified in South Africa as part of preclinical trials in order to measure its effectiveness.

While all viruses are constantly mutating, scientists are concerned about the emergence of the variants identified in the UK and South Africa as they appear to be able to alter key functions of the virus.

On Wall Street, Moderna shares gained 5.4% in pre-market trading after these announcements.

With AFP and Reuters

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