The American biotechnology company Moderna announced Monday, May 18, very preliminary but encouraging results for its experimental vaccine, before large-scale trials planned for July.

The young company, in which the US government has invested $ 483 million, has announced "positive interim data" from the initial phase of clinical trials. In eight people, the experimental vaccine called mRNA-1273 elicited an immune response similar to that seen in those who were naturally infected with the virus that causes Covid-19.

President Donald Trump, who wants 300 million doses by January to vaccinate the American population, immediately rejoiced. "I have seen the results, they are staggering. I am very happy and the markets are going up," he said.

This first phase also aimed to verify that the vaccine is not toxic, and Moderna only reported a few side effects such as redness at the injection site.

Messenger RNA

Moderna began human testing on March 16, among the first in the world. To date, only 12 clinical trials have started, half of them in China, according to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, on around a hundred projects identified.

Eager to be a priority, the United States invested early in the Moderna project as well as in those, less advanced, of the American group Johnson & Johnson and the French laboratory Sanofi, which has production sites in the United States.

It is too early to predict the future of this vaccine, based on a technology called messenger RNA which has never proven to be effective. The technology aims to give the body the genetic information it needs to preventively protect against coronavirus. The full results of the phase 1 trial, on 45 participants aged 18 to 55, are not yet known.

Wait for the results of phase 3

"This is not bad news," tempers Stephen Evans, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, noting that these first figures do not concern the elderly, those most at risk from Covid-19. "It is very difficult to be sure of the results from a press release," he added, stressing that only the results of the future phase 3 will decide on the effectiveness.

Phase 2, out of 600 people, has already received the green light from the American Medicines Agency and should start by June. Phase 3, which is usually done on thousands of people, should start in July, said Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna.

The company, founded nine years ago and based in Cambridge near Boston, has so far never received a drug or vaccine license. In the process, the Moderna share price in New York jumped more than 25% at midday.

With AFP

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