New Delhi: A phase 1 investigational trial has revealed that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US-based pharmaceutical company Moderna elicited a strong immune response in older adults with no serious adverse effects, a study has claimed.
The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, is being developed by Moderna in partnership with the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH). For the trial, 40 adults over the age of 56 were inoculated with the vaccine.
The researchers involved in the study were drawn from a host of US institutes, including Emory University School of Medicine and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Moderna helped develop the protocol for the study and provided the vaccine, but had no role in funding. The NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases served as sponsor and decision-maker for study design and implementation.
According to the results of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on 29 September, the vaccine produced high levels of both binding and neutralising antibodies in older adults.
Neutralising antibodies prevent infectious particles from interacting with host cells while binding antibodies can bind to the coronavirus but do not necessarily attack it.
The study noted that testing the vaccine on older participants was of “paramount importance” since “these persons account for the majority of serious Covid-19 cases and associated deaths”.
It added that the results are also significant because the “immune response to many other vaccines has been shown to decrease with increasing age”.
Also read: US is probing Moderna’s patents over its failure to disclose govt funding
The study
The participants of the study were divided into two subgroups — those between the ages of 56 and 70 and those who were 71 years and older. Both groups received two doses of either 25 micrograms or 100 micrograms of the vaccine, 28 days apart.
The vaccine produced both binding and neutralising antibody reactions in participants of both subgroups, but the “antibody and T-cell responses that were observed in this older population who received the 100-μg (microgram) dose exceeded the response to the 25-μg dose”.
Some participants experienced mild to moderate adverse effects, such as fatigue, chills, headache, myalgia (muscle pain), and pain at the injection site after being vaccinated.
“Such adverse events were dose-dependent and were more common after the second immunization,” the study said.
One of the participants in the 56-70 age group was not given a second dose of the vaccine because they developed an infection in a tissue close to the nail. But, according to the results, “No serious adverse events were reported, and no prespecified trial-halting rules were met.”
Also read: Moderna vaccine produces antibodies in trial of older people
Race for Covid vaccine
Among the limitations of the study is that it was conducted on only 40 participants.
The study recommended the “continued evaluation of the 100-μg dose level and two-dose regimen in a large phase 3 trial with a more diverse population to ascertain the safety and efficacy of the mRNA-1273 vaccine and to assess its level of protection against Covid-19″.
Over 30 other vaccine candidates have entered the clinical trial stage to test for safety and efficacy against the novel coronavirus. Among the front-runners are the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, which is in phase 2 or 3 trials in various countries, and the RNA-based BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, which is also in late-stage trials.
Also read: Oxford and Covaxin to Sputnik V — the many Covid vaccines in trial & how they’re faring
If the vaccine is ready they have immunize and stop killings &pandemic
They first declared on Aug,then Dec or Jan nd now saying end of July…strange.
Those who bought the company shares will be billionaires.Aziz Premji is one of them
They are failing to tell the public that they are using a totally new technology that will permanently alter the human being to become a genetically modified version. Human 2.0. They are using Messenger RNA to interact and change your whole biology and chemistry, a mutation. Good luck with that.