17-07-2020 by Mirai
30,000 people participate in phase 3 of this clinical trial conducted by Modern American biotechnology. According to the previous phases, the vaccine allowed to generate the production of a high level of antibodies within the panel.
The race for the vaccine is accelerating. Since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, scientists around the world have been working on an effective vaccine to stop this global pandemic. And the United States has just made a long-awaited announcement. On Tuesday July 14, biotech Moderna announced that it will enter the final phase of its clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine starting July 27.
For this phase 3 of the clinical trial, 30,000 people were recruited. Half of them will receive a dose of 100 micrograms and the rest a placebo. Objective ? Determine with certainty whether the vaccine will prevent potential Sars-Cov2 contamination by triggering sufficient antibody production. This test will also ensure that the vaccine does not pose a danger to humans. Phase 3 can also indicate whether the vaccine can prevent the progression of the disease in a person who is still infected.
In fact, even in the presence of symptoms, the vaccine can be considered a success if it prevents the occurrence of severe cases of the disease.
"Positive intermediate results"
Initial results from previous trials are encouraging, according to the findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study mentions "positive intermediate results". In phase 1, the vaccine enabled antibodies against the virus to be activated in the 45 participants in the experiment. These 45 people were divided into three groups of 15, who were administered doses of 25 micrograms, 100 micrograms and 250 micrograms. They then received a second dose 28 days later. Three participants developed redness in the legs and Covid symptoms after the first injection.
According to the first results, more than half of the participants also reported side effects after vaccination: fatigue, pain at the vaccination site, headache, etc.
The researchers found that the higher the prescribed dose, the higher the antibody levels. After the second injection, participants had a higher level of antibodies than former Covid-19 patients. Furthermore, all screening tests were negative. At the moment, the scientific community does not yet know the results of phase 2.
"You really have to limit the extrapolations from a phase 1 clinical trial because we want to see how it works when a person is exposed to the real virus," said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at the university. Johns at Agence France Presse.
If phase 3 proves successful, Moderna biotech claims to be capable of producing 500 million doses per year, and possibly even as much as a billion.
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