U.S. drugmaker reports promising early results from COVID-19 vaccine test
20 May, 2020
U.S. biotech firm Moderna has reported promising early results from the first scientific tests of an experimental vaccine against the novel coronavirus performed on a tiny number of volunteers.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said the vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, seemed to produce an immune response in eight persons who received it similar compared to that seen in persons convalescing from the virus.
"These interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection," said Moderna's chief medical officer Tal Zaks.
"These data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 gets the potential to avoid COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials," Zaks said.
Moderna, which was founded nine years ago, said the vaccine "was generally safe and well tolerated" and that patients suffered no more than redness or soreness from the shots.
In a conference call, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the preliminary tests inspired confidence that mRNA-1273 has "a high probability to provide protection" against the virus.
"We could not be happier about these interim data," Bancel said of the Phase 1 test, the to begin three in the development of a vaccine.
Separate tests performed on mice showed that the vaccine prevented the virus from replicating within their lungs, in line with the company.
The U.S. government has invested practically half a billion dollars in the development of Moderna's vaccine candidate.
It is being developed in a partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease headed by Anthony Fauci and the clinical test was carried out by the National Institutes of Health.
Three sets of 15 patients aged 18 to 55 received three different doses of the vaccine in the Phase 1 test, the entire results of which aren't yet known.
The Phase 2 trial, with 600 subjects, has already received the green light from the united states Food and Drug Administration and Moderna said they should get started this quarter.
A Phase 3 trial, the major and most important to validate the efficacy of a vaccine, should commence in July.
"The Moderna team continues to give attention to moving as fast as safely possible to begin our pivotal Phase 3 study in July," said Bancel, Moderna's CEO.
Based on the Phase 1 partial results, Moderna said they might no longer study the best dose since the lower doses appeared to provide some effect.
"The low the dose, the more persons we expect to be able to protect," said Moderna president Stephen Hoge.
President Donald Trump has said that he wants 300 million vaccine doses by January 2021 to safeguard the united states population and his administration has provided funding to Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and France's Sanofi.
The development of a vaccine usually takes years however the coronavirus pandemic, which includes caused more than 315,000 deaths, has given unprecedented urgency to the search.
A dozen clinical trials are taking place around the world, half of them in China, according to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
China has said that it is carrying out tests on humans of five experimental vaccines.
The challenge isn't only finding a safe and efficient vaccine but also producing billions of doses.
Several large laboratories, including Moderna, have said they might immediately begin production of an eventual vaccine even prior to the completion of each of the clinical trials.
Moderna recently announced a partnership with the giant drugmaker Lonza to improve its manufacturing capacity to up to 1 billion doses a year.
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