总部位于马萨诸塞州的生物技术公司Moderna是首批开始COVID-19疫苗人体试验的制药公司之一，该公司周一宣布，所有参与试验的45名患者都产生了COVID-19抗体，这激起了人们对一种安全有效的疫苗即将问世的热情。
这种疫苗在科学界被称为“信使核糖核酸-1273”，在3月和4月对18岁至55岁的男性和女性患者进行了测试。
在第一阶段试验中，患者在华盛顿西雅图的凯泽永久华盛顿健康研究所接受了为期28天的两剂疫苗。
中国的工程师在北京科兴生物技术设施的质量控制实验室研究COVID-19冠状病毒的实验疫苗。总部位于美国的Moderna公司宣布成功进行COVID-19疫苗的第一阶段临床试验，这给2021年可能会出现疫苗的希望增加了。
据CNBC报道，在试验的第43天，也就是第二次给药后大约两个星期，科学家们注意到患者体内产生的抗体与从新冠状病毒中恢复过来的患者一致，并且至少有8名患者产生了中和抗体。
莫德纳首席医疗官塔尔·扎克斯博士在一份声明中说:“当与临床前挑战模型成功阻止病毒在肺部复制的剂量相结合时，这些数据证实了我们的信念，即信使核糖核酸-1273具有预防COVID-19疾病的潜力，并提高了我们为关键试验选择剂量的能力。”。
Moderna是五家竞相寻找COVID-19疫苗的制药公司之一。
今年早些时候，制药公司Gilead发布了一条头条新闻，宣布药物Remdesivir已被批准用于治疗新的冠状病毒。然而，这种药物被认为是实验性的，对于COVID-19不是一种安全有效的治疗方法，需要更多的临床研究。
其他药物也包括在可能的COVID-19治疗中，如赛诺菲的羟氯喹，用于治疗疟疾。美国食品和药物管理局已经授权对因COVID-19住院的成年人和青少年进行紧急使用，但尚不清楚羟氯喹是否能有效治疗该病毒，并且仍处于试验阶段。
2020年5月8日，马萨诸塞州剑桥的莫德纳总部。莫德娜被美国食品和药物管理局批准继续进行冠状病毒(COVID-19)疫苗试验的第二阶段，共有600名参与者。
自一月份以来，莫德娜一直与美国国家卫生研究院密切合作，寻找一种疫苗，并在小鼠身上测试了该疫苗，然后在三月份进行人体试验。
通常需要数年的临床试验，疫苗才能被认为足够安全地推向市场，一些科学家，包括国家过敏和传染病研究所所长安东尼·福奇博士，已经声明疫苗到秋天还没有准备好。
然而，如果莫德娜继续在临床试验中取得成功，到2021年拥有一种有效且安全的疫苗是可能的。
本月早些时候，莫德娜宣布，美国食品和药物管理局(FDA)批准了莫德娜的第二阶段试验和疫苗快速指定的请求。
“快速通道的指定强调了对新型冠状病毒疫苗的迫切需求，”扎克说。
参与寻找有效的COVID-19疫苗的研究人员包括牛津大学、辉瑞公司、强生公司、吉列公司、赛诺菲公司、诺华公司和葛兰素史克公司。
世界各地的研究人员正在努力寻找一种针对COVID-19大流行的疫苗，但只有包括莫德娜在内的七个国家能够进行人体试验来寻找一种安全有效的疫苗。
这些进行人体试验的公司中有许多已经制造出或正在制造核糖核酸疫苗，这种疫苗可以更快地合成并制造出疫苗。
与普通疫苗不同，普通疫苗被认为是训练人体免疫系统来识别和抵抗病毒，核糖核酸疫苗被设计或编码来告诉细胞构建什么来抵抗某些疾病。
本月早些时候，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)表示，他非常有信心，到2021年，美国将有一种对抗新冠状病毒的疫苗。
“我认为我们将很快得到疫苗，”特朗普说。
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学的追踪报告，全世界共报告了470万例COVID-19，其中170万例痊愈，近316，000例死亡。
EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT MODERNA'S CORONAVIRUS VACCINE
Massachusetts-based biotech company Moderna, one of the first drug companies to begin human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, announced Monday that all the 45 patients who took part in the trials developed COVID-19 antibodies, fuelling enthusiasm that a safe and effective vaccine could soon be available.
The vaccine, referred to in scientific communities as mRNA-1273, was tested on male and female patients between the ages of 18 and 55 in March and April.
During phase one trials, the patients received two vaccine doses over a 28-day period at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle, Washington.
Engineers in China work on an experimental vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Quality Control Laboratory at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing. U.S.-based Moderna announced successful phase one clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, fueling hope that a vaccine maybe available by 2021.
On day 43 of the trial, roughly two weeks after the second dose was administered, scientists noted patients developed antibodies consistent in patients who've recovered from the new coronavirus and producing neutralizing antibodies in at least eight patients, CNBC reported.
"When combined with the success in preventing viral replication in the lungs of a preclinical challenge model at a dose that elicited similar levels of neutralizing antibodies, these data substantiate our belief that mRNA-1273 has the potential to prevent COVID-19 disease and advance our ability to select a dose for pivotal trials," Dr. Tal Zaks, Moderna's chief medical officer said in a statement.
Moderna is one of five pharmaceutical companies competing to find a COVID-19 vaccine.
Earlier this year, the pharmaceutical company Gilead made headlines with the announcement that the drug Remdesivir has been approved as a treatment for the new coronavirus. However, the drug is considered experimental and isn't considered a safe or effective treatment for COVID-19, and needs more clinical study.
Other drugs have also been included in possible COVID-19 treatments, such as Sanofi's hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat malaria. The FDA has authorized emergency use in adults and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19, but it's unknown if hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for the virus, and is still in the experimental stages.
A view of Moderna headquarters on May 08, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Moderna was given FDA approval to continue to phase 2 of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine trials with 600 participants.
Moderna has been working closely with the National Institutes of Health since January to find a vaccine and tested the vaccine on mice before moving on to human trials in March.
It can typically take years of clinical trials before a vaccine is considered safe enough to market, and some scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have stated that vaccine won't be ready by the fall.
However, if Moderna continues to have success with clinical trials, having an effective and safe vaccine by 2021 could be possible.
Earlier this month Moderna announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Moderna's request for phase two trials and fast track designation of the vaccine.
"Fast Track designation underscores the urgent need for a vaccine against the novel coronavirus," Zaks said.
Some of the researchers involved in a search for an effective COVID-19 vaccine include Oxford University, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, Sanofi, Novavax, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Researchers around the world are working toward finding a vaccine for the COVID-19 pandemic, but only seven, including Moderna, are able to conduct human trials to find a safe and effective vaccine.
Many of these companies who conducting human trials have created, or are in the process of creating RNA vaccines, which can be synthesized and create vaccines more quickly.
Unlike a normal vaccine, which is supposed to train up the body's immune system to recognize and resist a virus, RNA vaccines are designed or coded to tell cells what to build to resist certain diseases.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said he felt very confident that the U.S. would have a vaccine to fight the new coronavirus by 2021.
"I think we're going to have a vaccine much sooner rather than later," Trump said.
There have been 4.7 million cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide with 1.7 million recoveries and nearly 316,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
