New Study Claims Moderna's COVID Vaccine Candidate To Be Safe, Triggers Immune Response

Moderna Inc's experimental vaccine seems to have crossed an important milestone as the world continues to grapple with a surge in new COVID-19 infections.

The experimental vaccine for COVID-19 showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all healthy volunteers, states a study published in the New England Journal Of Medicine.

Reuters

According to CNN, in the Phase 1 study which included 45 healthy adults, the vaccine induced immune responses in all of them,

The volunteers aged 18 to 55 received two vaccinations of the mRNA-1237 vaccine candidate 28 days apart. The volunteers were separated into groups where they either received the vaccine at a dose of 25, 100 or 250 micrograms. They received their first vaccination between March 16 and April 14.

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Volunteers who got two doses of the vaccine had high levels of virus-killing antibodies that exceeded the average levels seen in people who had recovered from COVID-19, the team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to a CNN report, early results published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday showed that the vaccine worked to trigger an immune response with mild side effects like fatigue, chills, headache, muscle pain, pain at the injection site.

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Moderna is the first US vaccine candidate to publish results in a peer-reviewed medical journal and is expected to begin Phase 3 this month before regulators take a call on it's production.

"These Phase 1 data demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits a robust immune response across all dose levels and clearly support the choice of 100 ¦Ìg in a prime and boost regimen as the optimal dose for the Phase 3 study," Dr. Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna, said in the company's press release on Tuesday.

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"We look forward to beginning our Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273 to demonstrate our vaccine's ability to significantly reduce the risk of COVID-19 disease," he said.

Dr. Penny Heaton, chief executive officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wrote in an editorial accompanying the Phase 1 study in the New England Journal of Medicine that "the safety and immunogenicity data in this preliminary report are promising, and they support continued development of this vaccine. However, we must bear in mind the complexity of vaccine development and the work still to be done before COVID-19 vaccines are widely available,"

Reuters

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the 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 neutralizing antibodies.

Also Read: Herd Immunity Possible Even If Just 43% Of Population Is Immune To COVID-19

¡°If your vaccine can induce a response comparable with natural infection, that¡¯s a winner,¡± Fauci said in a telephone interview. ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re very pleased by the results.¡±

The U.S. government is supporting Moderna¡¯s vaccine with nearly half a billion dollars and has chosen it as one of the first to enter large-scale human trials. A successful vaccine could be a turning point for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna, which has never had a licensed product.

All Inputs CNN and Reuters

Disclaimer: The information mentioned in the article is based on facts available in public domain. Indiatimes does not endorse any medication or vaccine for COVID-19. Any course of treatment should only be followed after consulting a medical expert.