© Adam Glanzman / Bloomberg News
New details emerged Tuesday about the first human study of Moderna Inc.’s experimental coronavirus vaccine, which the researchers said bolstered their decision to give the injection in a large, landmark clinical trial scheduled to begin in late July.
The new results, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that the vaccine induced the desired immune response for all 45 people tested, a group larger than the preliminary data that Moderna published in May, and overall was safe and well tolerated.
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“This is really good news,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview Tuesday. NIAID co-developed the Modern vaccine and led the study. “The gold standard of protection against a viral infection is to neutralize the antibodies,” he said. “And the data from the study, however small, is quite clear that this vaccine is capable of inducing quite good [levels] neutralizing antibodies. “
The researchers said they found no serious safety risks, although some participants had pain at the injection site and symptoms such as fatigue, headache, and chills.
Dr. Fauci said the next big study may yield an end-of-year answer on whether the vaccine elicited sufficient immune responses to safely protect people from Covid-19. A positive response would clear the way for wider use and potentially help curb the deadly pandemic.
(More to come)
Write Peter Loftus at [email protected]
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