Moderna continues to believe in its vaccine. This American biotech laboratory announced on Tuesday July 14 that it would enter the final phase of its clinical trials for a vaccine against Covid-19 on July 27. Critical, phase 3 of the trial will involve 30,000 people in the United States. Half of them will receive a dose of 100 micrograms, the others a placebo. The study is expected to last until October 27, 2022.

The primary goal of this trial will be to find out if the vaccine is safe and prevents SARS-CoV-2 infection. If a person is still infected, the question will also be whether the vaccine can prevent progression to symptoms. Even if symptoms are seen, the vaccine can be considered successful if it prevents severe cases of Covid-19.

The announcement comes after Tuesday's publication in the New England Journal of Medicine of the results of the first phase of the Moderna trial, according to which the experimental vaccine has triggered antibodies against the coronavirus in all the 45 participants. .

World Race

Moderna had released the "interim results" of its Phase 1 in the form of a press release on its site in May, according to which the vaccine had provoked an immune response in eight patients. These results had been called "encouraging" by immunologist Anthony Fauci, and the full study was eagerly awaited by the scientific community. The company has since moved on to the next stage of its test, with 600 people.

Moderna is among the very first in the global vaccine race, receiving $ 483 million from the United States government. If the dose chosen for the tests (100 micrograms) proved effective, Moderna planned to be able to produce 500 million doses per year, and "possibly up to 1 billion".

The Chinese company SinoVac is also at an advanced stage of research, and the Russian agency TASS has announced that Russian researchers have completed clinical trials for a vaccine, but they have not released the data.

Scientists warn, however, that the first vaccines to hit the market are not necessarily the most effective or the safest. Moderna's technology, based on messenger RNA, has never proven effective against other viruses. It aims to give the body the genetic information necessary to trigger preventive protection against the coronavirus.

With AFP

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