Moderna announced on Wednesday that its updated COVID-19 vaccine pending approval by the Food and Drug Administration is effective against the new, highly mutated variant of the virus.

The drugmaker said its vaccine update for the fall has generated an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies in humans against BA.2.86, or Pirola, in clinical trials.

Moderna pointed to the Centers for Disease Control's belief that the BA.2.86 variant may be more capable of causing infection in people who previously had COVID-19 or were vaccinated with previous vaccines.

"These results demonstrate that our updated COVID-19 vaccine generates a strong human immune response against the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant," Moderna President Stephen Hoge said in a statement.

"Taken together with our previously communicated results showing a similarly effective response against EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 variants, these data confirm that our updated COVID-19 vaccine will continue to be an important tool for protection as we head into the fall vaccination season."

The BA.2.86 strain of COVID-19 has over 30 mutations, which has worried public health officials who fear that it could get around other vaccines meant for variants like Omicron.

"The emergence of BA.2.86, in addition to the growing prevalence of the EG.5 and FL1.5.1 variants, underscores the need for vaccination with an updated COVID-19 vaccine, which can help reduce severe disease and hospitalizations caused by current circulating strains," Moderna said its statement.

Moderna said its clinical trial data has been shared with regulators and submitted for peer-review publication. The pharmaceutical firm had submitted an updated application for its vaccine with the FDA in June.

Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent., source US Top News