[News] Moderna publishes a protocol for its experiments on the Corona vaccine

[ITS OZX-]

The American biotechnology group Moderna, one of two companies conducting clinical trials in the third phase in the United States on an experimental anti-Covid-19 vaccine, published Thursday the full protocol for its trials in response to calls for more transparency.

The race to find a vaccine has become a political dimension in the United States with the approaching presidential election date on the third of November, as President Donald Trump promised a vaccine by October, which raised doubts about possible pressures on the pharmaceutical agency that must make the decision to approve it.

Experts and Trump administration officials said that the results of the current experiments cannot be anticipated and are unlikely to be obtained before the end of 2020 and early 2021.

As for the doses, they will only be available in limited quantities in the first months, according to the health authorities.

Moderna said it does not expect results until November.

"Our most likely base plan is in November," its general manager, Stephane Bennasil, told ENBC. Our most optimistic plan is in October, which is unlikely but possible. And if the rate of injuries in the country slows in the coming weeks, this may be delayed until December, which is the worst case scenario.

Moderna also announced Thursday that it has contracted with 25,296 subscribers out of 30,000 it needs, of whom 28% belong to minorities.

The company said that obtaining a sufficient number of black participants, especially Hispanic, is essential to obtain results that are statistically representative of these groups affected more than others by this pandemic in the United States.

10,025 participants received a second dose, which was given 28 days after the first dose.

The protocol for the third phase experiment, which the company is negotiating with the US Medicines Agency, details the course of the experiment and the rules followed in the distribution of participants to different groups according to certain criteria, especially the conditions for access by an independent committee of experts to the data and the possibility of stopping the experiment if it is dangerous or continuing.