Moderna testing 3 vaccine booster shots, says CEO

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel has said his company is currently testing three different booster shots for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Bancel was speaking with CNBC‘s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.

Co-host Joe Kernen had asked can’t the virus be kept under control even if just 50% of the population is vaccinated.

“So I think it’s a bit too early to know Joe exactly what is required as you know Dr. Fauci and others have said,” replied Bancel, according to the CNBC exclusive interview’s unofficial transcript that US and Global News received via email from NBCUniversal, CNBC’s owner. “What I think this really shows is what we have been saying for now for months is that we believe we are all going to need boosting.”

He then shared, “And as you know, Moderna has been very active in its boosting strategy, while testing three different in parallel, to make sure we pick the best one. We’re testing in the clinic right now, boosting our currently authorized vaccine.”

Moderna’s booster shots will boost antibodies in people who have received the company’s vaccine.

“And we believe that’s going to be helpful because it’s basically going to boost antibodies to people who have received our vaccinations already,” said the Moderna CEO.

Moderna is also testing a new program for the mRNA vaccine that injects a 100% copy of the virus’s South African variant.

Bancel added, “And we’re testing, as you know, a new program for mRNA 1273.351, which is 100% copy of the full spike protein of the virus variant that was identified in South Africa and we’re also testing a combo of those two 50 50 mass ratio product called 1273.211 and so we actually put out yesterday, the preclinical papers showing that those boosting strategies with variant vaccines show very high neutralizing antibodies so we are pretty confident that the data in the coming weeks in humans, we should see the same thing.”

mRNA (or “messenger RNA”) is one of the different types of ribonucleic acid (RNA) – a molecule similar to DNA – in the cell, according to National Human Genome Research Institute. mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases, explains the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These vaccines work by giving instructions for our cells to make a protein, or even just a piece of a protein, so that an immune response is triggered inside our bodies. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines teach our cells how to make a harmless piece of what is called the “spike protein,” which is found on the COVID-19-causing novel coronavirus’ surface. As a result, our bodies learn how to protect against future infection.

Kernen then commented, “Which is part of the promise of this very agile technology, the messenger RNA technology so you can boost just normal immunity to the original COVID and combine it with some sequences for some of the variants in the booster and do that fairly quickly and fairly easily.”

Bancel responded, revealing he wants to ensure boost vaccines are available to people in the fall.

“Correct and the regulators have given very clear guidelines, they do not need efficacy study but neutralizing antibody in people that were vaccinated a year ago, we are doing this currently so I think it’s going to be a few months to getting that data ready to file to the regulators,” said Bancel. “Our goal is to work really hard to get this ready before the fall. I want to make sure they are boost vaccines available in the fall so that we protect people, as we’re going to see next fall in the US.”

Watch the full interview on CNBC’s website, here.

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