Moderna’s experimental coronavirus vaccine has built immunity in monkeys and protected them from being infected, according to results of a new trial study announced by the company Tuesday.
Monkeys receiving two doses of the vaccination achieved protection from infections in the lungs and nose, the company’s website said.
When given the mRNA-1273 vaccine, the monkeys showed a “robust immune response and protection” against COVID-19, Moderna said in the study’s conclusions, which were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Moderna President Stephen Hoge said he likes how the vaccine has performed so far.
“Given the similarity between the protective immune response generated by mRNA-1273 in this study and the immune response seen in humans in the recently published Phase One clinical data for the vaccine, we remain cautiously optimistic that mRNA-1273 will be able to prevent COVID-19 disease and may also slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by shortening the duration of the shedding,” Hoge said, Boston’s WBTS-TV reported.
