Moderna Backtracks COVID-19 Vaccine Trials to Enroll Minorities

Moderna asked sites that are conducting vaccine trials to focus on enrolling at-risk minorities as their test participants.

(Photo : Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
A view of Moderna headquarters on May 08, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Moderna said this Friday even though getting minorities can slow down vaccine trials for their coronavirus vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.

There are 21,411 enrolled participants in the Moderna vaccine trial so far. Last week, it had about 17,000 participants, with 24% from minorities or communities of color.

The company's goal is to reach 30,000 healthy volunteers for their vaccine trial, Reuters reported. This means enrollment is already about 71% done for Modern, noted The Montley Fool.

While it may not seem much, it is quite an improvement from the number of participants from last week, which was only 58% of the target.

"We believe these efforts will improve the quality of the study and confidence in the vaccine by building evidence for benefit in the communities at highest risk of COVID-19," a company spokesperson said in an email.

They said they are expecting enrollment in the late-stage study, which began in late-July, to end in September.

"We want to ensure we have data for all the people who could benefit and be protected," Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC.

While it is lagging where experts had hoped they would be, the number of minorities in their trials is still ahead for those interested in COVID-19 vaccine trials.

The company provides a number of enrolled participants every Friday afternoon.

Need for Minorities in the Moderna Trials

There has been a growing body of evidence showing the risks that COVID-19 poses among communities of color.

People of different races also tend to react differently to drugs and vaccines. This places much importance on the presence of minorities during vaccine trials.

Other than building a vaccine that works for a diverse group of people, involving minorities in the process also builds trust. This trust doesn't just go with the health care providers.

It also builds the minorities' trust in the vaccine itself as they were part of the development process. Knowing who and what was done during the vaccine trials put these groups at ease that they are in safe hands amid the pandemic.

There are nearly 11,000 people enrolled so far who are Latino or Black. Many reports have shown that these groups are among the hardest hit by the coronavirus.

It was also stressed by one Pfizer executive in a Reuters report last month.

Moderna Shares Drop

As the news of a slower vaccine trial process rose, shares for Moderna went down.

The company has a $23.5 billion market value, but it went down 8% after the news. It recovered somehow during the afternoon. It closed down about 3.5%.

So far this year, Moderna's stock went up by 215.6%, a report from Market Watch said.

Moderna is one of the few companies in the last few stages of developing a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna started its vaccine trial on the same day as pharma giant Pfizer. Both began on July 27.

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