Moderna coronavirus vaccine safe, induces immune response, early results show

No serious side effects among volunteers tested, but more than half reported mild or moderate reactions such as fatigue, headache, chills or muscle aches

US company was first to start human testing of vaccine candidate on March 16. It will start phase 3 trials with 30,000 volunteers on July 27

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A subject receives a shot in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of Moderna’s potential vaccine in Seattle in March. Photo: AP

Published: 6:56am, 15 Jul 2020Updated: 8:51pm, 25 Nov 2020

Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine for Covid-19 was shown to be safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study, US researchers reported on Tuesday.

No study volunteers experienced a serious side effect, but more than half reported mild or moderate reactions such as fatigue, headache, chills, muscle aches or pain at the injection site.

These were more likely to occur after the second dose and in people who got the highest dose, the team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Moderna shares jumped more than 15 per cent in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

A sign marks the headquarters of Moderna Inc in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo: Reuters

Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose researchers developed Moderna’s vaccine candidate, called the results “good news”, noting that the study found no serious adverse events and the vaccine produced “reasonably high” levels of virus-killing or neutralising antibodies.

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