Sign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter on what you need to know, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast for the latest news and analysis. An experimental vaccine from the U. S. biotechnology company Moderna Inc. showed signs that it can create an immune-system response to fend off the new coronavirus, offering tentative hopes in the global effort to combat the pandemic. The results are just a sample from the small, first study designed to look at the safety of the shot in human volunteers, and should be viewed with caution. But they showed no major safety worries, a key first hurdle since a vaccine would be given to millions of otherwise healthy people.“This is a very good sign that we make an antibody that can stop the virus from replicating,” Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel said in an interview. The data “couldn’t have been better,” he said. The company is moving ahead with plans for a larger test to pick a dose of the vaccine and further study its effectiveness, as well as a phase 3 test with many thousands of patients. A vaccine is considered a crucial step toward lifting social-distancing measures and safely reopening economies, schools and events around the globe. The new coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, has infected more than 4.7 million people and killed over 300,000, spurring a global race by drugmakers, academic institutions and governments to find a vaccine. Moderna shares surged as much as 30% in New York, hitting an all-time intraday high of $87. Broader markets rose as well, with S&P 500 futures and European stocks trading near session highs. Read more: Xi promises China’s vaccine will be a public goodThe vaccine trials are being conducted in stages, with the first test designed only to look at safety and whether or not the shot created lab markers of an immune-system response. Only in later stages of testing, to be conducted in thousands of patients starting in July, will the vaccine go up against the virus in the real world in a definitive test of whether it prevents or lessens infections. In the phase 1 test, the researchers looked at blood samples from the test subjects and whether the vaccine helped them generate antibodies that could theoretically fight off an infection. The researchers found that at two lower dose levels used in the study, levels of antibodies found after getting a second booster shot of the vaccine either equaled or exceeded the levels of antibodies found in patients who had recovered from the virus. Bancel said that safety profile appeared to be good, and the reactions were typical of vaccines. Three patients who got a high dose of the vaccine had more severe side effects, according to a company presentation. That dose won’t be used in later trials. One person with more severe side effects got a middle dose, and had redness around the injection site, the company said. Side effects seen in the trial included fatigue, fever, muscle pains and headache.
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Coronavirus Vaccine From Moderna Shows Early Signs of Viral Immune:
