ऐप डाउनलोड करें
According to interim results published in The New England Journal of Medicine on 14 July 2020, mRNA-1273, an investigational vaccine against COVID 19 is showing positive results.
The vaccine, designed to protect against SARS-COV-2 prompted neutralising antibody activity in healthy adults.
The RNA based vaccine is being co-developed by researchers at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and by American Biotech giant Moderna, Inc.
The trial was led by Lisa A. Jackson, M.D., MPH, of Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, where the first participant received it on 16th March. In April, the trial was expanded to enrol adults older than age 55 years; it now has 120 participants.
However, the newly published results cover the 18 to 55-year age group only.
The study found that all the volunteers showed antibodies after the first dose of the vaccine. Higher the dosage, stronger the immune response.
No severe side effects of the vaccine were reported. More than half of the participants reported fatigue, headache, chills, myalgia or pain at the injection site. However, systemic adverse events were more common following the second vaccination and in those who received the highest vaccine dose.
This report also contains details of the initial findings from the first 45 participants ages 18 to 55 years enrolled at the study sites in Seattle and at Emory University in Atlanta. Three groups of 15 participants received two intramuscular injections, 28 days apart, of either 25, 100 or 250 micrograms (mcg) of the investigational vaccine. All the participants received one injection; 42 received both scheduled injections.
The COVID-19 pandemic has now touched 13.3 million cases worldwide and the development of a vaccine would be pivotal in tracing where the next few months will take us. Moderna has specified that plans are underway to launch a Phase 3 efficacy trial in July 2020.
