Heavy hearts soared Monday with news that Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine candidate — the frontrunner in the American market — seemed to be generating an immune response in Phase 1 trial subjects.
Scientist Xinhua Yan works in the lab at Moderna in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb. 28, 2020. Moderna has developed the first experimental coronavirus medicine, but an approved treatment is more than a year away.Covid-19 vaccine candidate — the frontrunner in the American market — seemed to be generating an immune response in Phase 1 trial subjects. The company's stock valuation also surged, hitting $29 billion, an astonishing feat for a company that currently sells zero products.
Experts suggest we ought to take the early readout with a big grain of salt. Here are a few reasons why.The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases has partnered with Moderna on this vaccine. Scientists at NIAID made the vaccine's construct, or prototype, and the agency is running the Phase 1 trial. This week's Moderna readout came from the earliest of data from the NIAID-led Phase 1.
We don't know results from the other 37 trial participants. This doesn't mean that they didn't develop neutralizing antibodies. Testing for neutralizing antibodies is more time-consuming than other antibody tests and must be done in a biosecurity level 3 laboratory. Moderna disclosed the findings from eight subjects because that's all it had at that point. Still, it's a reason for caution.
STAT asked Moderna for information on the antibody levels it used as a comparator. The response: That will be disclosed in an eventual journal article from NIAID, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
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