Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Effective Across Age Groups, Reveals Phase 1 Study Data

Data from the Phase I trial of Moderna, Inc.’s (Cambridge, MA, USA) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine shows that older adults who participated in the study responded just as well as younger adults.

Moderna’s presentation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) August Meeting included new interim safety and immunogenicity data from the cohorts of older adults in the NIH-led Phase 1 study of its mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate against COVID-19. The results are significant as COVID-19 appears to be more deadly for older people and vaccines are also usually less effective in the elderly.

Moderna’s early-stage trial included data from 20 people in the older age group who were given the same dose of the vaccine that is currently being administered to participants in the final-stage trial. The company said that its coronavirus vaccine produced “consistently high levels” of neutralizing antibodies in older adults and the antibody levels in people aged over 55 years old were comparable to the levels found in younger adults. The neutralizing antibody levels in 10 adults aged 56 to 70 years and in an additional 10 adults aged 71 years and above were as high as the neutralizing antibody levels in adults aged 18 to 55 years. According to Moderna, the dose elicited higher antibody levels as compared to the levels generally found in people recovering from the novel coronavirus. The company also said that no vaccine-related serious adverse events were reported in the Phase 1 study and the vaccine was well-tolerated across age groups.

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