Coronavirus vaccine candidates to begin final round of testing this summer

The feds plan to start the final round of trials for three potential coronavirus vaccines this summer.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to participate in the phase 3 studies backed by the National Institutes of Health, which aim to determine whether the vaccines are safe and effective, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Biotech firm Moderna’s vaccine candidate is set to start its trial in July, according to the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and British drugmaker AstraZeneca is expected to begin phase 3 testing in August, followed by Johnson & Johnson’s candidate in September, the institute said.

The NIAID said those are estimated timelines because the start of a phase 3 trial depends on factors such as approval to proceed from the Food and Drug Administration.

Researchers around the world have been racing to develop a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus amid the global the pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 people.

More than 100 potential vaccines are in the pipeline, but the leading candidates need further testing before they can be widely distributed.

“There’s a lot of optimism in our community that a vaccine should be possible, but we are very focused on the fact that that has to be proven in clinical trials,” John Mascola, director of the vaccine research center at NIAID, reportedly said last week.

Massachusetts-based Moderna said last month that its vaccine produced an immune response to the coronavirus in an early study with just 45 patients. AstraZeneca and Oxford’s vaccine has begun human testing and the company recently made a deal to supply the US with 300 million doses, but results of the research have not been released.

New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson announced Wednesday that it moved up the start of early testing for its vaccine from September to the second half of July. The company has said it plans to produce 600 to 800 million doses by early next year.

Neither AstraZeneca nor Moderna immediately responded to requests for comment. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases did not immediately confirm the timeline for the phase 3 trials.

Several other companies have vaccines in the works, including Novavax, Novartis, Pfizer and Merck.