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Moderna Has Completed Case Accrual for First Planned Interim Analysis of its mRNA Vaccine Against COVID-19 (mRNA-1273)
11 November 2020 - - US-based biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., (NASDAQ: MRNA) has completed case accrual for the first interim analysis of the Phase 3 COVE study of mRNA-1273, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, the company said.

Moderna has seen a significant increase in the rate of case identification across sites in the last week.

As a result, the company expects the first interim analysis will include substantially more than 53 cases, the targeted trigger point for the analysis.

The data on these cases is being prepared for submission to the independent Data Safety Monitoring Board for analysis and recommendation. Moderna remains blinded to whether these participants received vaccine or placebo.

On October 22, the Phase 3 COVE study of mRNA-1273 completed enrollment of 30,000 participants in the US The randomized, 1: 1 placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial is studying mRNA-1273 at the 100 µg dose.

The primary endpoint is the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 disease. Key secondary endpoints include prevention of severe COVID-19 disease and prevention of infection by SARS-CoV-2.

The Phase 3 study was designed in collaboration with the FDA and NIH to evaluate Americans at the highest risk of severe COVID-19 disease and included more than 7,000 Americans over the age of 65.

It also included more than 5,000 Americans who are under the age of 65, but have high-risk chronic diseases that put them at increased risk of severe COVID-19, such as diabetes, severe obesity and cardiac disease.

These medically high-risk groups represent 42% of the total participants in the Phase 3 COVE study. Moderna also worked to develop a vaccine for everyone, including communities that have historically been under-represented in clinical research and are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

The study included more than 11,000 participants from communities of color, representing 37% of the study population and similar to the diversity of the US at large.

This included more than 6,000 participants who identify as Hispanic or LatinX, and more than 3,000 participants who identify as Black or African American.

mRNA-1273 is an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 encoding for a prefusion stabilized form of the Spike (S) protein, which was co-developed by Moderna and investigators from NIAID's Vaccine Research Center.

The first clinical batch, which was funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, was completed on February 7, 2020 and underwent analytical testing; it was shipped to the NIH on February 24, 42 days from sequence selection.

The first participant in the NIAID-led Phase 1 study of mRNA-1273 was dosed on March 16, 63 days from sequence selection to Phase 1 study dosing. On May 12, the FDA granted mRNA-1273 Fast Track designation.

On May 29, the first participants in each age cohort: adults ages 18-55 years (n=300) and older adults ages 55 years and above (n=300) were dosed in the Phase 2 study of mRNA-1273. On July 8, the Phase 2 study completed enrollment.

Results from the second interim analysis of mRNA-1273 in the 56-70 and 71+ age groups were published on September 29 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

On July 28, results from a non-human primate preclinical viral challenge study evaluating mRNA-1273 were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. 

On July 14, an interim analysis of the original cohorts in the NIH-led Phase 1 study of mRNA-1273 was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. A summary of the company's work to date on COVID-19 can be found here.

BARDA is supporting the continued research and development of mRNA-1273 with USD 955m in federal funding under Contract no. 75A50120C00034. BARDA is reimbursing Moderna for 100% of the allowable costs incurred by the company for conducting the program described in the BARDA contract.

The US government has committed up to USD1.525 bn to purchase supply of mRNA-1273 under US Department of Defense Contract No. W911QY-20-C-0100.

Moderna has said it expects to be able to produce about 20m doses of mRNA-1273 in 2020 and from 500 m up to one bn doses worldwide in 2021.
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