Moderna's coronavirus vaccine successful on Monkeys; massive human trials have begun on Monday
The coronavirus vaccine developed by US biotech firm Moderna, which is undergoing clinical trials, has shown great results in Monkeys. A new study y Journal of Medicine shows that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine induced a robust immune response and prevented the coronavirus from replicating in the noses and lungs of Monkeys.
The vaccine's ability to block the virus transmission in nose is seen as a big success as the same was not found when Covishield, the coronavirus vaccine jointly manufactured by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, was tested on Monkeys.
Covishield was however successful in preventing the virus from entering the Monkey's lungs.
In Moderna's study, three groups of eight rhesus macaques received either a placebo or the vaccine at two different dose levels of 10 micrograms and 100 micrograms.
In all macaques, high levels of neutralizing antibodies that attack a part of the coronavirus were found after the vaccine.
As a matter of fact, the antibodies produced in Monkeys were found to be at levels higher than those found in humans who have recovered after contracting the coronavirus.
The biggest test for the vaccine though, got underway Monday with the first of some 30,000 Americans rolling up their sleeves to receive shots created by the U.S. government as part of the all-out global race to stop the pandemic.
