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Biotech company Moderna provided some encouraging news on Monday regarding the development of a possible vaccine to counteract the coronavirus.
About two weeks ago, the company received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct early-stage clinical trials on an experimental vaccine that would be administered to a group of volunteers. Moderna said in a Monday statement that its vaccine created Covid-19 antibodies in all 45 people who participated in its study.
According to CNBC, Moderna’s 45 trial volunteers were placed in three groups of 15 people to evaluate low, medium, and high microgram doses of the vaccine. Eight patients from the low and medium dose groups were able to generate antibodies that were similar to those in people who’ve recovered from Covid-19.
The New York Times reports that patients in the high dosage group developed fever, muscles and headaches, though Moderna’s chief medical officer, Dr. Tal Zaks, said those side effects went away after a day. Nonetheless, Zaks said the high dosage would be taken out of future studies since the
Moderna is expected to move the vaccine into the next stage of broader experimentation in the coming months, though the data is encouraging and the company says the vaccine could be viable for market use by the end of 2020 or early 2021.