Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc are testing their COVID-19 vaccines against the new fast-spreading version of the virus that has emerged in Britain.
Moderna expects immunity from its vaccine to protect against the variants and is performing more tests in the coming weeks to confirm, the company said in a statement to US broadcaster CNN.
It comes as the number of confirmed cases of the new variant in Scotland rose to 18, with the vast majority in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and some in Lanarkshire.
READ MORE: Variant Covid virus detected in two Scottish health board regions
Pfizer said it is “generating data” on how well blood samples from people immunized with its vaccine “may be able to neutralize the new strain from the UK,” according to the report.
Many vaccines are in development
The discovery of the new strain sowed a fresh wave of panic in a pandemic that has killed about 1.7 million people and infected more than 77.15 million worldwide.
READ MORE: Marquess of Bute charged over Covid lockdown breach
The main worry is that the new variant is 40%-70% more transmissible.
Scientists have said there’s no evidence that vaccines currently being deployed in the United Kingdom - made by Pfizer and BioNTech - or other COVID-19 shots in development will not protect against this variant, known as the B.1.1.7 lineage.
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