Moderna publishes antibody persistence data of COVID-19 vaccine
pharmafile | April 9, 2021 | News story | Medical Communications |
Moderna have published antibody persistence data out to six months following the second dose of its COVID-19 vaccine (mRNA-1273) in The New England Journal of Medicine this week.
The data analysed was from 33 healthy adult participants in the NIH-led Phase I study of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, taken six months after a second dose was administered.
As detected by three distinct serologic assays, antibodies elicited by the Moderna vaccine persisted through six months after the second dose. Antibody decay was estimated using two approaches, and was consistent with published observations of convalescent patients with COVID-19 through eight months after symptom onset.
Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said: “We are pleased that this new data shows antibody persistence through six months following the second dose of our COVID-19 vaccine.
“This gives us further confidence in the protection afforded by our COVID-19 vaccine. We remain committed to continuing to address the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Moderna jab is an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 encoding for a prefusion stabilised form of the Spike protein, which was co-developed by Moderna and investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Centre.
Moderna have confirmed that investigations into immune responses beyond six months are ongoing, and the company is also pursuing a clinical development strategy against emerging variants.
NIAID is also set to conduct a Phase I clinical trial to assess the monovalent and multivalent modified mRNA-1273 vaccines as a primary series in non-vaccinated individuals and also as a booster vaccine to those previously immunised with mRNA-1273.
Interim results from the Phase III trial of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine indicated 94% efficacy in preventing coronavirus disease, and its roll out of in the UK began this week.
Kat Jenkins
