Pharmaceutical company Moderna reports its potential coronavirus vaccine is promising after all 45 patients in its human trial produced a “robust” immune response. The group given the highest dose had four times the amount of antibodies than recovered COVID-19 patients.
Moderna continues to track how long the immune response lasts and plans to follow patients for a year after they’re given the vaccination.
Their report was published in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine today, causing Moderna stocks to spike by more than 16-percent.

As result of the promising trial, Moderna is now planning to recruit 30,000 people for the next stage of testing of its COVID-19 vaccine.

The NAIAD says the new trial is posted to the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trials website. It says it will enroll an estimated 30,000 participants for a randomized trial, with participants either given the vaccine or a placebo. The trial is expected to begin on July 27 and end on October 27.

To be eligible to enroll, people must be over the age of 18 and healthy. They must be at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Women must not be pregnant and must agree to use contraception throughout the study period. They must also not be breastfeeding. Men must refrain from sperm donation from the point of the first dose and for three months before enrollment.

People not eligible to join include those who have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, people who are acutely ill, have previously been infected with the coronaviruses MERS-CoV and SARS.

Trials will be taking place at 87 locations across the U.S.

A full list can be found at the end of the NIH’s clinical trial page, along with contact details for Moderna’s clinical trials.
Researchers are not yet recruiting for the trial. More details will become available on how to enroll once recruitment opens.
Further information on the trial will also be available via Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine page.

You can also register interest in volunteering for clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines under development via the NIAID here. The COVID-19 Prevention Network has been set up to combine four clinical trial networks dedicated to the new coronavirus, including the Moderna trial.