Story at a glance
- Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine reportedly stimulated a strong immune reaction to the virus in a crucial older patient group.
- COVID-19 is especially risky for eldery people and patients with compromised immune systems.
New data from pioneering pharmaceutical company Moderna reveals hopeful news: Older adults who participated in the Phase 1 trials for its coronavirus vaccine candidate responded just as well as younger adults, MarketWatch reports.
COVID-19 infections have been particularly severe for elderly adults, with the CDC classifying older adults, generally people aged 50 years or older, as being at a heightened risk for acute illness.
MarketWatch also notes that this is especially good news considering vaccines tend to be less effective on elderly adults.
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“The whole industry is very focused as to, can we get a vaccine that can protect the elderly,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel in an interview Wednesday. “It’s always a big question, and so we are super happy.”
The data specifically reports that during the phase one trial, neutralizing antibodies, or an antibody the body creates to defend cells from a pathogen, hit the same levels in 20 adults ranging from 56 to 71 years and up. These levels were as high as those found in adults aged 18 to 55 who also participated in Moderna vaccine trials.
T-cells, another cell that helps the body’s immune system fight foreign pathogens, also showed positive responses to the vaccine in older adults.
Bancel described the amount of neutralizing antibodies within older patients as “consistent.”
“You don’t have some elderly at very high level and some at very low level. One hundred percent of the elderly have high neutralizing antibodies. It’s very tight between people,” he said.
So far in its trials, Moderna hasn’t seen any adverse side effects from its potential vaccine. The company has yet to publish its findings in a medical paper but will reportedly be presenting this data to a panel of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday morning.
Pfizer and BioNTech will also present data at the same meeting.
The entire world is anxiously awaiting effective treatments to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enacted its emergency authorization usage to approve convalescent plasma as a treatment for COVID-19 patients.
Convalescent plasma is the fluid component of blood sourced from patients who recovered from a coronavirus infection. Ideally, this therapy would be used to induce an immune response to the virus and help fight it off.
Despite this approval, health officials expressed caution about the treatment as a cure, citing a lack of evidence regarding its efficacy.
The head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, also admitted that data on using convalescent plasma as a treatment showed some relative reduced risk of a COVID-19 fatality, but that the treatment needs further study and its emergency authorization could be revoked if necessary.
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