The first vaccine specifically tailored to tackle a new variant of COVID-19 is now being tested on volunteers, it was announced last night.
The UK’s Oxford-based vaccine development team have designed the vaccine to block the Beta variant of the virus, associated with South Africa.
It is to mostly to be tested as a booster dose, to see if it can tweak immune responses to counteract new variants, developers said. However, some of the more than 2,000 volunteers in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and Poland will test the vaccine as their first or second dose.
In the UK, it will be given to volunteers as a booster at least three months after their second dose.
The new vaccine AZD2816 has been developed using the adenoviral technology used for the original Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. It tackles ten changes in the viral spike protein, some of which have increased infectivity or reduced sensitivity of antibodies to the original virus.
Researcher Professor Sir Andrew Pollard said: “Testing booster doses of existing vaccines and new variant vaccines is important to ensure we are best prepared to stay ahead of the pandemic coronavirus, should their use be needed.”
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