AZ said Monday morning that it has started testing its new COVID vaccine, known as AZD2816, as a tweaked version using the same platform as its authorized (though not in the U.S.) pandemic vaccine AZD1222, aka Covishield/Vaxzevria. AZD2816 has been built using the same adenoviral vector platform as its existing vax, with minor genetic alterations to the spike protein based specifically on the so-called beta (B.1.351, South African) variant. Source: Fierce Biotech 28/6/21