ANKARA

US biotech firm Moderna said that its coronavirus vaccine would be protective against the new variants of the virus spreading in the UK.

"Based on the data to date, Moderna expects that the vaccine-induced immunity from the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine would be protective against the variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus recently described in the UK," the company said Wednesday in a statement.

It noted that additional tests will be performed in the coming weeks to confirm the vaccine's effectiveness against the new variants to confirm this expectation.

"While we plan to run tests to confirm the activity of the vaccine against any strain, the broad range of potential neutralizing antibodies made possible by the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine provide confidence that our vaccine will also be effective at inducing neutralizing antibodies against them," Moderna added.

It said they already tested "a number of previous variants" of the virus that have emerged since the beginning of the pandemic and found that its vaccine "to remain equally effective."

Moderna's vaccine, second in the US following the Pfizer-BioNTech, began to be distributed after receiving an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration last Friday.

On Tuesday, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci received the vaccine from Moderna.