Vaccine research

Eight of 45 participants in a vaccine trial being conducted by Moderna Inc., in Massachusetts, America, produced antibodies to COVID-19, the company announced on Monday.

The Moderna potential vaccine is among 118 candidates listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 15 with the explicit proviso that the document did not mean approval or endorsement by WHO and was “only for information purposes”.

In Phase 1, an open-label trial had enrolled 45 healthy adult volunteers and an analysis of the response to the Moderna vaccine had found that eight people produced antibodies for COVID-19. While Phase 2, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration will test the effectiveness of the vaccine and find the optimal dose, Phase 3 is due to start in July.

There are currently 118 vaccine candidates listed by the WHO, with eight in clinical evaluation and the rest in preclinical evaluation.

Along with Moderna, the others in clinical evaluation are:

A candidate developed by the Hong-Kong listed company CanSino Biological and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology in China. A candidate developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products under the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).

A candidate developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products also under Sinopharm.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals based in America which is set to start clinical trials on its candidate.

A candidate developed by the University of Oxford.

A candidate by US drug giant Pfizer with vaccine maker BioNTech and China based Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. A candidate by Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a Chinese based biopharmaceutical company.