Vaccine research: CureVac, GSK's experimental COVID variant vaccine effective in mice -study

CureVac, GSK's experimental COVID variant vaccine effective in mice -study CureVac and GSK's second-generation vaccine candidate targeting two recent COVID-19 variants has been shown to be highly effective in preclinical studies on mice, CureVac said, as it seeks to catch up with rivals' development work. Ludwig Burger Reuters

A study in mice showed that the bivalent vaccine candidate, designed to address the Beta and Delta variants of the coronavirus, elicited neutralizing antibody levels that were comparable to the monovalent vaccine candidates targeting only one of the variants.

"During exposure of the vaccinated animals to either the Beta or the Delta variant, the bivalent mRNA vaccine significantly reduced the viral load in the animals," CureVac said in a statement on Thursday.

While the early results point to potentially broader protection from one bivalent shot compared to a vaccine that only addresses one variant, validation via much more onerous testing on humans will be required.