Moderna Pushes to Extend the Reach of its COVID-19 Vaccine

Moderna is working to widen the utility of its COVID-19 vaccine and, over the past week, announced that it has begun to study its vaccine in kids aged six months to 11 years old, that it is testing a version of its vaccine that can be stored at warmer temperatures and that it launched a study of a modified COVID-19 vaccine to target the variant strain first identified in South Africa.

Moderna announced yesterday that it’s conducting a phase 2/3 study on kids in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). The study, a randomized, placebo-controlled expansion study, aims to enroll about 6,750 pediatric participants in the U.S. and Canada.

Currently, Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for use in adults age 18 and older, while Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine has been authorized for use in people 16 and older. Moderna’s vaccine was given Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the FDA on Dec. 18, 2020, a week after Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine received an EUA.

Moderna and Pfizer initiated trials in 2020 on adolescents age 12 years and older. Results of those trials are still pending. And Johnson & Johnson says it will soon begin testing its one-shot vaccine in children.

Moderna’s vaccine requires temperatures of minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). Earlier this week, the company announced that it had begun a phase 1 study on a version that could be stored at higher temperatures, involving both a single-dose version and a double-dose version (DID, March 16).

Moderna also announced March 10 that it had dosed the first participants in a study of the company’s modified COVID-19 vaccine designed to address the potential need for booster vaccine candidates, in an amendment to an ongoing phase 2 clinical study. — Suz Redfearn