The Cambridge biotech reported that the experimental treatment produced antibodies in eight volunteers.
Moderna said Monday that the vaccine the Cambridge biotech helped develop for COVID-19 produced antibodies in the blood of eight volunteers comparable to those seen in people who recovered from the disease.
The company’s chief medical officer, Dr. Tal Zaks, said the initial results from the first phase of a clinical trial suggest that the vaccine “has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease.”
Scientists suspect that antibodies found in the blood of people who recover from the new coronavirus may make them immune to reinfection, but that has not been proven yet.
A few dozen volunteers participated in the first stage of the study, but Moderna said data were available for only a small portion of them.
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Moderna’s experimental vaccine uses custom-built messenger RNA ― the genetic material that directs cells to do something ― to trigger an immune response. The firm developed the vaccine candidate with investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. NIAID conducted the first phase of the study.
Moderna announced on May 7 that the Food and Drug Administration had cleared its application to proceed to a mid-stage clinical trial, so it was no surprise that the biotech got promising results in the first phase.
The mid-stage trial will involve about 600 people and is expected to begin shortly. Assuming that it’s successful, the last stage of the study is expected to start in July.
Drug firms, academic laboratories and governments have developed more than 100 potential vaccines in the hopes of ending the pandemic, but Moderna’s was the first to enter clinical trials. At least eight vaccine candidates are being tested on humans.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com
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May 18, 2020 at 06:37PM
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Moderna says first-stage study of coronavirus vaccine produced antibodies in subjects - The Boston Globe
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