A Phase 3 clinical trial of investigational vaccine mRNA-1273 to prevent #COVID19, co-developed by #NIH @NIAIDNews and @Moderna, has begun. The multisite trial will assess preventive power, enrolling 30k+ volunteers. Learn more: https://t.co/r1Li3GhSw3 pic.twitter.com/sRWyXCiDjo
— NIH (@NIH) July 27, 2020
This is one of the vaccines that have made it out of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials with indications of safety and effectiveness. Phase 3 will be primarily assessing effectiveness.
The protocol is for two shots. The first will be on the first day of the observational period and the second is on Day 29. Initial effectiveness and safety results will start coming in after two months from the first day of the observational period. This trial is recruiting across the country including in numerous current hotspots. We should start to get solid hints from the data in October.
Even as the trials for this and other vaccine candidates start, the next big challenge will be logistics. Hundreds of millions of doses will be needed in the United States. Billions will be needed globally. Some of the candidates require complex cold-chain storage/distribution networks. All require some type of administration mechanism. Most of the typical global supply had already been spoken for with regular vaccines including the flu. We need to surge capacity and quality control to get a one-off huge bump in production.