Coronavirus: Moderna says early Covid-19 vaccine tests show ‘positive’ results
- Preliminary tests show mRNA 1273 vaccine candidate providing antibodies at levels seen in recovered Covid-19 patients
- Moderna expects to start a larger late-stage trial in July
Moderna Inc, the company developing a Covid-19 vaccine candidate supported by the US government, announced “positive interim clinical data” on Monday in preliminary human trials showing that the vaccine delivers antibodies at levels found in patients who have recovered from the disease.
Data from tests on eight subjects “elicited neutralising antibodies … as measured by plaque reduction neutralisation (PRNT) assays against live Sars-CoV-2”, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, Moderna said about the early results of testing on its mRNA 1273 vaccine candidate. “The levels of neutralising antibodies at day 43 were at or above levels generally seen in convalescent sera”.
Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also said that it saw dose-dependent increases in immunogenicity – the ability to provoke an immune response in the body – in all 45 participants in the study, who were given three different dosages, and that the vaccine has so far been “generally safe and well tolerated” by the test cohort.
There is currently no vaccine for the new coronavirus that emerged in China late last year, an outbreak that quickly spread to become a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people worldwide, though more than 100 vaccines are under development globally, according to the World Health Organisation. At least eight vaccines are in human trials.
Nor are there any formally approved treatments; the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this month authorised the emergency use only of the experimental medication remdesivir, an antiviral produced by Gilead Sciences.
Health experts have warned that social distancing measures in place around the world to slow the Covid-19 spread will need to stay in place until an effective vaccine is available globally.