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On July 27, the American biotech company Moderna will start the final phase of the clinical tests for the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus. This makes Moderna the first company to announce that the final phase is in sight.
For the first time, a study into a vaccination for the new coronavirus seems to be successfully approaching the finish line. US biotech company Moderna has announced that it will launch the final phase of clinical trials on July 27.
Thirty thousand people will participate in the final part of the study in the US. Half of them receive a dose of 100 micrograms of the vaccine, the others a placebo. The first goal of the study is to prevent all symptoms of COVID-19. The secondary objectives include prevention against a SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study should end on October 27.
After this third phase, the regulators can in principle decide whether or not to make the vaccine available on the market. Scientists warn that the first vaccines to hit the market will not automatically be the safest or most efficient vaccines.
Immune to virus
Early results of the study, published Tuesday in the New Englad Journal of Medicine, show that Moderna’s vaccine manages to trigger an immune response with mild side effects. It is the first time that results of a study of an American candidate vaccine have been published in a scientific journal, according to CNN.
Moderna reported in a press release that, if all goes well in future studies, it could deliver about 500 million vaccines per year and possibly even a billion doses per year from 2021. According to the World Health Organization, Moderna’s candidate vaccine is one of 23 potential vaccines currently being tested worldwide.
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