One of the boxes containing the Modern COVID-19 vaccine is ready to be shipped to the McKesson Distribution Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi, USA December 20, 2020.
Paul Sancya | Reuters
Moderna plans to test a scheme of its Covid-19 vaccine a year after the initial two-dose vaccination, as the protection period against the brand new vaccines is still unclear.
The biotechnology company plans to begin the trial in July, according to a corporate presentation this week. His clinical trial sites have already begun contacting participants in earlier studies, according to an email shared by one of the people.
“From what we’ve seen so far, I think our expectation is that the vaccination will last you at least a year,” said Moderna’s chief medical officer, Dr. Tal Zaks told investors and analysts at the JPMorgan Healthcare conference yesterday. “To the extent that you require a boost survey, we will make a sound recommendation, and it will require us to get the data.”
The first participants in Moderna’s clinical trials for humans received their shots in mid-March; a second was given four weeks later. As the earlier trials tested multiple doses of the vaccine, those with lower doses than those eventually granted – 100 micrograms – would get boosters earlier, while those at 100 micrograms or higher would get their boost at the year point, according to ‘ an e-mail to participants.
The scheme now being planned is the same version of the vaccine on the market, but Modane CEO Stephane Bancel said it would be necessary in the coming years to adapt the vaccine to cover new variants. .
“I think it will become a market like flu,” he told CNBC. Moderna also recently launched a seasonal flu vaccine program.
The augmentation study for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine will evaluate the safety and extent of an immune response that elicits an extra shot one year later, Bancel said at the conference this week.