Who owns Moderna and what are the results from their coronavirus vaccine trial?
A CORONAVIRUS vaccine has shown promising results so far and provides hope for millions of Americans. The vaccine, produced by biotech company Moderna, is the first one to be tested on humans in the US. Who owns Moderna? French billionaire Stephane Bancel is the CEO of Moderna and has a nine percent stake in the […]
A CORONAVIRUS vaccine has shown promising results so far and provides hope for millions of Americans.
The vaccine, produced by biotech company Moderna, is the first one to be tested on humans in the US.
Who owns Moderna?
French billionaire Stephane Bancel is the CEO of Moderna and has a nine percent stake in the company.
His net worth is about $1 billion.
The board of directors of Moderna consists of nine people, including Bancel and co-founder and chairman Noubar Afeyan.
Where is Moderna located?
The biotechnology company is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
It was founded in 2010.
What are the results from their coronavirus vaccine trial?
Moderna has tested the vaccine on eight people, who all showed an immune response to the virus.
The volunteers received two doses in March, and made antibodies that were then tested in human cells in a lab.
The antibodies were able to stop the virus from replicating.
The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, “was generally safe and well tolerated, with a safety profile consistent with that seen in prior Moderna infectious disease vaccine clinical studies,” the company said.
One person in the trial experienced redness around the injection site, which was characterized as a “grade 3” side effect.
“When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a pre-clinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials,” said Dr. Tal Zaks, Chief Medical Officer at Moderna.
Added Bancel: “We are investing to scale up manufacturing so we can maximize the number of doses we can produce to help protect as many people as we can from SARS-CoV-2.”
The FDA completed its review of the Investigational New Drug (IND) application last week and allowed the company to move forward.
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There have been about 1.5 million coronavirus cases in the US, and nearly five million cases around the world.
About 90,000 people have died from the virus in the US.
It is possible that a vaccine could be available to the public by the end of this year or the beginning of 2021.