Moderna touts 'important milestone' as phase 3 study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate begins

A phase three study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine has officially begun in the United States.

Moderna announced on Monday that it has started dosing participants in the phase three trial of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. This is the first phase three clinical trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine to begin in the U.S., CNN reports. Moderna says the study is expected to include 30,000 participants.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel in a statement on Monday said that "we are grateful to the efforts of so many inside and outside the company to get us to this important milestone," adding that "we look forward to this trial demonstrating the potential of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19, so that we can defeat this pandemic." The first data from the study is expected to take months to arrive, The Associated Press writes.

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In an appearance on Good Morning America on Monday, Moderna chair Noubar Afeyan said a timeline for when the vaccine candidate could potentially receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration and start being distributed depends "somewhat on how rapidly cases emerge in our trial," and so it "could go quicker, but it could also take a little bit longer."

This comes after earlier this month, Moderna said that its vaccine candidate induced a "robust" immune response in all 45 patients with mild side effects during its phase one trial. Moderna received an additional $472 million in funding from the federal government on Sunday, and should the vaccine prove to be safe and effective, the company says it "remains on track" to deliver 500 million doses each year, "and possibly up to 1 billion doses per year," starting in 2021.