A race for the cure: Moderna Therapeutics starting Phase 3 human trials for COVID-19 vaccine

LOS ANGELES - There was some pretty exciting news this week from an East Coast company called Moderna Therapeutics.

Nationally, the Massachusetts company started Phase 3 human trials on what they call a promising COVID-19 vaccine.

Some of that testing will be done in Los Angeles at UCLA's Vine Street Clinic. That will start in about two weeks.

What will investigators be looking for? “We’re looking for one, is a vaccine that is safe. Can we give it to a large number of people? The second thing we’re looking at is that if we give the vaccine to volunteers... will it make antibodies? Will it elicit an immune response? In terms of T cells is a very important part of the immune system. Any vaccine that is successful whether it’s the Moderna vaccine or the Oxford vaccine has to really prime our T cells and get our own host T cells to fight the coronavirus,” said Dr. Matthew Waxman who practices and teaches Emergency Medicine at UCLA.

Moderna's phase three human trials will involve about 30,000 volunteers nationally and about 350 to 500 in Los Angeles.

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