Moderna Plans Phase 3 Trial of COVID-19 Vaccine for Early Summer

Moderna, a frontrunner in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, announced Thursday that its phase 3 study for the candidate could start by early summer.

The FDA has already cleared the vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, for a phase 2 two trial in approximately 600 participants.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the company hopes to have the vaccine approved early next year and it is accelerating a scale-up of manufacturing operations.

Moderna’s chief medical officer, Tal Zaks, said that the company has seen promising results so far for the vaccine hopeful in more than 1,500 healthy volunteers and seven positive phase 1 datasets.

“We’ve time and again demonstrated the ability to illicit an immune response in the form of neutralizing antibodies,” he said. — James Miessler