By
Godfrey Benjamin
October 4th, 2023
Moderna COVID-19 vaccine candidate dubbed mRNA-1273 has entered its late-stage trials. The company noted that as of Wednesday, September 16, 2020, about 25,296 participants have been enrolled.
The CEO of biotechnology company Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) Stephane Bancel has disclosed the company will know whether its COVID-19 vaccine candidate will be effective in combating the coronavirus disease sometime in November. As reported by the Boston Globe, Moderna CEO made this declaration about their COVID-19 vaccine known in an interview stating the slowing rate of the coronavirus infection will halt the confirmation of the drug’s efficacy.
“The infection rate has slowed down the last two weeks, which is great for the country, but the readout in October becomes less and less probable,” he said. “We’ve said November,” he added, and if the infection rate slows down further, “it could be December.”
For a company without an approved drug product, the strides in its research and development in the past 12 months has been reinstated by the CEO Bancel in the company’s R&D Day statement. He explained:
“The Moderna team has made significant progress since our last R&D Day 12 months ago. The pipeline has matured with our COVID-19 vaccine in a Phase 3 study and four candidates in Phase 2 studies. We are actively preparing for a potential commercial launch of mRNA-1273, our COVID-19 vaccine, and we continue to expand the breadth of Moderna’s platform. We are announcing that we are increasing our investment in vaccines and we will develop a seasonal flu vaccine given the unmet need for highly effective vaccines.”
Moderna (MRNA) COVID-19 vaccine candidate dubbed mRNA-1273 has entered its late-stage trials. The company noted that as of Wednesday, September 16, 2020, about 25,296 participants have been enrolled in the Phase 3 COVE study, and approximately 28% of participants enrolled cumulatively are from diverse communities. Of this number, about 10,025 have received the second of the two required vaccinations.
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Research Has Government Backing
Moderna (MRNA) has been adequately featured and placed on the U.S. government radar for its mRNA-1273 vaccine despite the company’s British origins. Coinspeaker reported earlier that the firm reached an agreement with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine once approved in a deal valued at $1.525 billion.
In Bancel’s latest interview as detailed by the Boston Globe, the CEO dispel any claims that funding from the government has placed the company under any form of pressure but that rather, government intervention has helped the company in its bid to hasten its commercialization.
Following the recent developments, the shares of Moderna (MRNA) appears to be investors delight as it closed at $68.84, adding 2.93% on Wednesday, and is up in the pre-market. At the time of writing, it is up 0.96%.