TUE, MAY 19 2020-theG&BJournal- Drug maker, Moderna Inc., announced Monday its vaccine candidate against novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) produced effective interim clinical data from the Phase 1 study led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Moderna said results from Phase 1 trial involving patients who were given does of the vaccine at lower level of 25 (µg) micrograms and mid level of the 100 microgram dose (ages 18-55) developed antibodies to the virus at levels seen in convalescent sera (blood samples from people who have recovered from COVID-19) tested in the same assay.
“These interim Phase 1 data, while early, demonstrate that vaccination with mRNA-1273 elicits an immune response of the magnitude caused by natural infection starting with a dose as low as 25 µg,” said Tal Zaks, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer at Moderna. “When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials.”
“With today’s positive interim Phase 1 data and the positive data in the mouse challenge model, the Moderna team continues to focus on moving as fast as safely possible to start our pivotal Phase 3 study in July and, if successful, file a BLA,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer at Moderna. “We are investing to scale up manufacturing so we can maximize the number of doses we can produce to help protect as many people as we can from SARS-CoV-2.”
Moderna said in their statement that Phase 1 study is being amended to include a 50 µg dose level cohort across each of the three age groups, suggesting that the 25 µg maybe too low. Moderna anticipates the dose for the Phase 3 study to be between 25 µg and 100 µg and expects Phase 3 trial initiation in July, subject to finalization of the clinical trial protocol.
‘’Funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), supported the planning for the Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies of mRNA-1273 and will also support the execution of these studies, as well as the scale-up of mRNA-1273 manufacturing both at the Company’s facilities and that of its strategic collaborator, Lonza Ltd’’ Moderna said.
mRNA-1273 is an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 encoding for a prefusion stabilized form of the Spike (S) protein, which was selected by Moderna in collaboration with investigators from Vaccine Research Center (VRC) at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the NIH.
Moderna noted that the first clinical batch was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and was completed on February 7, 2020 and underwent analytical testing. The first participant in the NIAID-led Phase 1 study of mRNA-1273 was dosed on March 16, 63 days from sequence selection to Phase 1 study dosing.
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