New Delhi, Delhi, India
One of the front runners in coronavirus vaccine, Moderna Inc has confirmed that they will begin the human trial of their vaccines in July as it enters the final stage of testing.
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The company will be testing the much-anticipated vaccine on 30,000 volunteers.
According to Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech, their primary goal of the study would be to prevent symptomatic coronavirus, the disease caused by COVID-19, their second goal will be the prevention of severe disease to keep people out of the hospital.
A 100-microgram dose has been selected by the company for the late-stage study and to maximize the immune response and minimize adverse reactions. Based on this dose level, the company aims to deliver 500 million doses per year and possibly up to 1 billion starting from 2021. The company is in a strategic collaboration with Swiss drugmaker Lonza.
The shares on Moderna Inc jumped 6 per cent in premarket trading.
The company has said that it has completed manufacturing enough doses for the phase 3 trial.
Around 100 vaccines are being developed across the world. Companies at the forefront in decrypting the virus include AstraZeneca, Pfizer, BioNtech, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Sanofi and China's CanSino Biologics.
Coronavirus has infected over 7.2 million people globally, as per data from the Johns Hopkins University.