This archive report was first published on 15 July 2020.
Published on July 15, 2020, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed encouraging results for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.
Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases official, had previously described the vaccine's interim results as 'encouraging', but the full study had been eagerly awaited by the scientific community.
Moderna's trial involved 45 participants, who were split into three groups to test doses of 25 micrograms, 100 micrograms, and 250 micrograms.
After the first round, antibody levels were found to be higher with higher level doses, and after the second round, participants had higher levels of antibodies than most patients who have COVID-19 and gone on to generate their own antibodies.
However, more than half the participants experienced mild or moderate side-effects, including fatigue, chills, headache, bodyache, and pain at the injection site.
Andrew Freedman, an infectious disease expert at the University of Cardiff, noted that the vaccine 'is able to stimulate antibody production in a dose-dependent fashion' and that the antibodies generated were able to neutralise the virus in lab conditions.
