Washington (AFP)

With 42% of people with risk factors, and 37% of volunteers from minorities, the clinical trial of the experimental vaccine against Covid-19 from the American company Moderna includes a strong representation of the groups most vulnerable to the coronavirus, according to figures released Thursday.

Moderna is one of the few companies to have achieved the feat of developing a vaccine and having launched a large-scale clinical trial less than ten months after the genetic sequencing of the novel coronavirus, with some Chinese, Russian and Western projects, including that of the Pfizer laboratory, also very advanced in the United States.

The biotech company announced Thursday that it has finished recruiting the 30,000 volunteers required for the so-called phase 3 trial. Of these 30,000, at least 25,564 people have already received the second dose of the vaccine (four weeks after the first) .

This rapid pace will allow the company to obtain sufficient results by the end of November, in particular on the safety of the vaccine, and then to file an emergency authorization request with the United States Medicines Agency (FDA).

Moderna had already said he was counting on November 25, and Pfizer plans to apply for authorization in the third week of November.

In these trials, half of the volunteers receive a placebo, and the other half a vaccine, blind.

If the number of participants in the vaccinated group naturally contracting the virus and falling ill with Covid-19 is at least 50% lower than in the placebo group, the vaccine will be declared effective.

Seasonal influenza vaccines are around 40 to 60% effective.

In Moderna's trial, more than 11,000 participants (37%) come from communities of color, including 6,000 Hispanic and 3,000 African-American or black people, according to a company statement sent ahead of a presentation Thursday to the advisory committee of the FDA on vaccines.

A quarter of the volunteers are over 65 years old, and 17% are between 18 and 65 years old with risk factors such as diabetes, severe obesity, significant heart and lung diseases, i.e. a total of 42% of participants from groups with severe important risk factors.

A quarter of these at-risk people suffer from severe obesity.

In November, if the two companies conclude that their vaccines are both effective and safe and file a claim, it will be up to FDA experts to review the data and clear the market.

The US government then thinks it can distribute the first doses immediately and free of charge.

According to Health Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday, there will be enough doses to vaccinate the "most vulnerable" Americans before the end of the year, then all the elderly and health workers before the end of January, and finally the rest of Americans by early April.

© 2020 AFP