Enrolment of Older Adults Begins In COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Trial

Emory University (Atlanta, GA, USA) has begun enrolling adults aged over 55 years in the clinical trial of an investigational vaccine designed to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Enrolling older adult volunteers will help investigators better understand vaccination outcomes among older people, who face a higher risk of complications from COVID-19 than younger individuals.

The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, was developed by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC) clinic at the National Institutues of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, along with the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc. Phase 1 of the vaccine trial began on March 16, 2020 and has enrolled 45 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 years. The investigators are now expanding Phase 1 of the trial to enroll an additional 60 participants which will include 30 adults aged 56 to 70 years and 30 adults aged 71 years and older. The study participants will receive two shots of the experimental vaccine approximately one month apart and will be followed for about one year.

“Older adults are at a higher risk of suffering serious complications and needing hospitalization if they develop a COVID-19 infection,” said Evan Anderson, MD, principal investigator of the vaccine study at Emory and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “Since many older adults don’t develop as strong an immune response to vaccines, it’s critically important for us to evaluate this vaccine candidate in older adults as well.”

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