Government researchers are set to begin testing the first potential coronavirus vaccine, thanks to an emerging Cambridge biotech.
Moderna Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) reported after markets closed Monday it has delivered the first batch of its vaccine for COVID-19 over to a branch of the National Institutes of Health for clinical testing. The NIH’s allergy and infectious disease institute will lead the next leg of development through a collaboration between it and Moderna.
The Cambridge startup is one of multiple drugmakers feverishly working on a vaccine for the virus, which the World Health Organization reports has killed more than 2,600 people and infected close to 79,500 people worldwide. There are currently no preventive treatments available for COVID-19 or any other types of coronavirus.
Moderna developed the vaccine in what Juan Andres, Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer, called “record speed” — just 42 days.
The company’s stock price had risen 16 percent as of 11:45 a.m Tuesday.
The vaccine, known as mRNA-1273, uses an experimental approach leveraging messenger RNA, an element that Moderna believes can alert a person’s immune system to begin producing antibodies and fight the disease. CureVac AG, which has its U.S. headquarters in Boston, is hoped to develop a messenger RNA vaccine for COVID-19, while others, such as Sanofi (Nasdaq: SNY) and GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), are taking a more traditional approach.
