Israel signs deal to buy coronavirus vaccine from Moderna – report

Moderna confirmed on Thursday it planned to start a trial of 30,000 volunteers for its vaccine in July.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A sign marks the headquarters of Moderna Therapeutics, which is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 18, 2020 (photo credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)
FILE PHOTO: A sign marks the headquarters of Moderna Therapeutics, which is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 18, 2020
(photo credit: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS)
Israel has signed with Moderna Inc for the future purchase of its potential COVID-19 vaccine should the company succeed in its development, Israel's Channel 13 news reported on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Israel's Health Ministry was not available for immediate comment.
The Channel 13 report said that under the agreement the vaccine, if successful, will be exported to Israel. No other details were reported.
The vaccine is in advanced stages of development, after 45 patients were given the vaccine in phase one and showed promising results.
Phase two, which Moderna announced it was concluding, was meant to test the efficacy of the vaccine that was shown to be safe for use on humans, and although results haven't been made public yet, they are believed to indicate that individuals who were vaccinated showed an increased amount of antibodies surpassing that of patients who recovered from the virus.
Phase three is set to begin very soon, according to the company, that claimed it could start production of the vaccine as soon as September of this year.
Moderna's vaccine called mRNA-1373, prevents the production of the protein which normally allows the virus to connect to the cell. By doing so, it limits the ability of the virus to enter cells in the first place, preventing the disease from developing and allowing the body's immune system to destroy the virus.
The company believes that if the third phase of testing is successful as the priors were, mass production of a vaccine could by underway by December, with an estimated one billion doses completed by 2021.