Coronavirus vaccine volunteers get first shot
The first injection of an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Cambridge-based biotech firm Moderna Inc. was administered Monday — and other pharmaceutical companies are not far behind in the ongoing race to curb the pandemic.
“This study is the first step in the clinical development of an mRNA vaccine against (COVID-19) and we expect it to provide important information about safety,” said Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer in a statement.
Zaks said the company is actively preparing for a potential phase two study.
With careful jabs in the arms of four healthy volunteers, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle began the first-stage study.
Some of the study’s 45 carefully chosen volunteers, aged 18 to 55, will get higher dosages than others to test how strong the inoculations need to be. Scientists will check for any side effects and draw blood samples for further testing.
Kaiser Permanente screened dozens of people, looking for those who have no chronic health problems and are not currently sick.
Monday’s milestone marked just the beginning of a series of studies in people needed to prove whether the shots are safe and could work. But even if the research goes well, a vaccine would not be available for widespread use for 12 to 18 months, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
At a news conference, President Trump touted how quickly the research had progressed. Fauci noted that 65 days have passed since Chinese scientists shared the virus’ genetic sequence. He said he believed this is now a record for rapidly developing a vaccine to test.
Dozens of research groups around the world are in the fight to create a vaccine against COVID-19.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, based in Pennsylvania, aims to begin safety tests of its vaccine candidate next month in a few dozen volunteers at the University of Pennsylvania and a testing center in Kansas City, Mo., followed by a similar study in China and South Korea.
CureVac, a German biopharmaceutical company, is working on expanding its manufacturing capacities to be able to provide up to billions of doses for outbreaks like coronavirus. “We are very confident that we will be able to develop a potent vaccine candidate within a few months,” said CureVac CEO Daniel Menichella.
Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies along with the Massachusetts-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are aiming to identify a coronavirus vaccine candidate for clinical trials by the end of the month.
The company said it’s optimistic it can initiate a phase two clinical study of a potential vaccine candidate by the end of the year.
Coronavirus cases in the United States rose to nearly 3,500 Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control.