[국제]”Effects for Moder, Vaccine, and Mutant Viruses… Plans to develop new vaccines

[앵커]

Amid growing concerns about the COVID-19 mutant virus, U.S. biotechnology company Moderna has announced that its vaccine is effective against mutant viruses in the UK and South Africa.

However, it shows low immunity to the South African mutant virus, and plans to start a study to develop a new vaccine or one more shot of the existing vaccine.

Reporter Lee Dong-hun.

[기자]

Moderna, who developed the Corona 19 vaccine following Pfizer at the end of last year, said its vaccine is also effective against mutant viruses in the UK and South Africa.

After two doses of Modena vaccine, an experiment with immune-generated blood samples revealed that neutralizing antibodies capable of neutralizing each mutant virus were produced.

However, in the case of the South African mutant virus, the amount of neutralizing antibodies decreased to one-sixth, and thus there was a possibility that immunity could drop rapidly.

For this reason, Moderna plans to launch a test to increase immunity against the South African mutant virus.

It is a plan to receive the existing vaccine once again, all three times, or to develop a new vaccine specialized for the South African mutant virus and use it for the second vaccination.

Pouch, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who conducted a joint experiment with Modena, acknowledged the effectiveness of the existing vaccine, but emphasized that tensions should not be released.

[앤서니 파우치 / 미 국립 알레르기·전염병연구소 소장 : 백신의 효과에 본질적인 영향은 없는 것으로 보입니다. 좋은 일이나 바이러스가 진화하기 때문에 주의해야 합니다.]

Mr. Pouch stressed that there is a potential for new mutant viruses that the existing vaccines do not work with, and that the vaccine needs to be continuously improved.

In the end, it is a story that, like the flu vaccine, the Corona 19 vaccine is likely to continue getting it.

This is YTN Dongheon Lee.

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]