Moderna Therapeutics leaps after full data for early Covid-19 vaccine trial

A Covid-19 vaccine candidate being trialled by Moderna Therapeutics triggered a significant antibody response, complete data from the tests published on Tuesday revealed.

The company had already said as much back in May but on Tuesday it published more data in The New England Journal of Medicine, allowing researchers to better assess its efficacy.

In particular, the levels of antibodies produced were in the upper half of the range of those produced by patients who had fallen ill and then recovered.

Commenting on the trial results, America's top epidemiologist, Anthony Fauci, told Bloomberg:"The good news is that this vaccine induced antibodies.

"Not just any kind of antibodies, but neutralizing antibodies."

The scientist went on to label the results "really quite promising".

However, there were side effects among those dosed with the vaccine.

But according to Fauci they were neither alarming nor different from those seen with other vaccines - although some experts disagreed.

Over half of the patients in the trial and who had been given two doses of the vaccine experienced mild to moderate fatigue, chills, headaches and muscle pain.

Two-fifths meanwhile had a fever following the second dosing.

Of 14 patients given a third dose, three suffered severe side effects.

Moderna also confirmed that a third clinical trial involving 30,000 people and a two-dose treament would start as planned on 27 July.

As of 1300 BST, shares of Moderna Therapeutics were leaping 16.27% to $87.30.