Details of the early trial of the Moderna vaccine: Sufficient antibodies against coronavirus, minor side effects
Two months after the American company Moderna's promising statement about its experimental vaccine to combat the coronavirus, details of a clinical trial on 45 volunteers have been published, which has brought a positive reaction and welcome from part of the scientific community.
The CEO of Moderna announced in late May that the results of the phase one trial of a vaccine for Covid-19 showed that the immune systems of the test subjects showed the same response as those seen in treated individuals.
The statement received widespread coverage in the news media, but the scientific community had asked for details to be released so it could make its own judgments about it, beyond the commercial issues.
The results have now been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a prestigious peer-reviewed journal in the United States.
These results show that all 45 volunteers produced enough antibodies to fight the coronavirus. At the same time, minor side effects were observed in many patients.
Anthony Fauci, a prominent American researcher and physician and a senior member of the United States' COVID-19 response team, said the results were "encouraging."
Mr. Fauci emphasized that “the data looks really good; there are no serious side effects.”
"It's definitely a good start. There's not much left that we don't know about," said Betty Diamond, director of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York, according to the specialized website State News.
Of course, the website still emphasizes that it is still too early to make a final judgment about the Moderna vaccine. However, since the company's statement was made, Moderna has entered the next phase of clinical trials and, according to news agencies, is testing on 600 volunteers.
According to results published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 45 initial trial volunteers were between the ages of 18 and 55 and were vaccinated twice 28 days apart.
After the first round, antibody production was higher than usual, but it was after the second round, almost a month later, that the level of antibodies against Covid-19 in all volunteers was higher than in many who had already been sick and whose bodies had produced enough antibodies themselves.
Side effects were seen in more than half of the volunteers, but they were not serious enough to stop the trials from continuing. Side effects included headaches, feeling tired, feeling shaky, or body aches.
A number of researchers have said that the results published in the New England Journal of Medicine are more promising because one or more vaccines will be developed that will reduce the consequences of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Currently, a number of American, Chinese, and European companies, along with other centers and institutions around the world, are conducting tests on a range of vaccines.
Two weeks ago, it was announced in China that Sinovac Biotech, the second vaccine produced in China and the third in the world to combat the coronavirus, would soon enter phase three of clinical trials.
On Monday, a senior US government official said that pharmaceutical companies partnering with the government are on track to begin producing a vaccine against the coronavirus disease by late summer.
However, even if a vaccine or vaccines are developed in the coming months, there are various doubts about their availability to everyone. Covid-19 is a global pandemic that has left millions sick and a significant number of victims, and many countries around the world are unable to produce drugs or vaccines on their own.
Meanwhile, another issue that some researchers are concerned about is the "excessive speed" of trials and reaching the production stage in a short time. Some of them remind that it sometimes takes years to observe real side effects of vaccines and that precautions must be taken in all aspects of production.
Source: Radio Farda
