Right across the world, in countries rich and poor, the news broke creating a stir. U.S. biotech company Moderna announced it had a vaccine to help our immune system fight Covid-19. The world was already aware it was inserting synthetic mRNA into living patients’ cells. Moderna hoped to reprogram these, so they could create their own therapies and vaccines to fight infections.
The Path to a Vaccine to Help Our Immune System Fight Disease
However, this was not entirely a new science. Wikipedia reports several ‘larger pharmaceutical companies’ previously abandoned the idea. That’s after they found the ‘dangerous side effects’ invincible. Moderna picked up the ball in January 2020, when it announced it was developing a vaccine to help our immune system fight the virus.
Then in March, 2020 Moderna revealed it was preparing for human testing in partnership with US National Institute NIAID. In April, U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority pumped $483 million into the project. Finally in early May the FDA approved a dosing and effectiveness safety trial.
Plans Were Immediately Put in Place for a Billion Dose Roll Out
Moderna signed a deal with Swiss vaccine producer, Lonza Group to manufacture the vaccine if the test were to be successful. Under this, Lonza would begin batch manufacturing by July 2020 for a potential order of a billion doses.
Neutralizing antibodies were found in the first eight people from the dosing and effectiveness safety trial. Moreover, their immune response was similar to that in people who had the actual infection. Does this mean we finally have a vaccine to help our immune system fight the deadly scourge of Covid-19? Some experts say Moderna should release more data before they can comment.
Larger trials of the experimental vaccine mRNA-1273 are on program for July. The vaccine is a small piece of the coronavirus DNA. This is sufficient to provoke an immune response, but not large enough to cause the infection.
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Preview Image: Vaccination Sequence from Video
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