Moderna Vaccine Trials

The Moderna Company which got some publicity in the news never actually published their data in the medical literature but did a press release.

What did they test?                                                Low, intermediate and high dose

What kind of vaccine?                                           RNA

What is good about an RNA vaccine?                  It is not the whole virus. It is part of RNA of the virus that gets injected. It enters human cells and we help make the viral particle, then we recognize that it is foreign and make antibodies to it.

It can be mass produced.

What is not so good about RNA vaccines?         There is no tract record. We have never had an RNA vaccine for any disease. It is novel technology being studies as tumor vaccines. If this works, it will help us understand treatment of cancer with RNA vaccines.

How many people ?                                                   45

Serious adverse effects in any volunteer?             No

Neutralizing antibodies made to virus?                Yes ( but tested only 8 Patients)

Results promising?                                                   For sure

Pitfalls?                                                                       This was just safety study. For efficacy they only studied 8 patients who did make antibodies but we don’t know if those antibodies are protective ( we think they are because the amount of it was the same as someone who developed the disease )

Problem with the study?                                        Results release to media not the medical specialists so we didn’t get all the scientific data.

What is next?                                                           Phase 2 trial