CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Cambridge-based biotech company, Moderna, has sent their recently-developed vaccine for the coronavirus for human testing.
The vaccine was developed at the company's Norwood, Mass. manufacturing plant, and has been shipped to researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Doctor in London holds bacteria containing the coronavirus. (Getty Images)
"I want to thank the entire Moderna team for their extraordinary effort in responding to this global health emergency with record speed," Juan Andrews, Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer at Moderna, said in a statement. “This would not have been possible without our Norwood manufacturing site, which uses leading-edge technology to enable flexible operations and ensure high quality standards are met for clinical-grade material.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that clinical trial testing for the vaccine is set to begin in April.
In a statement to WBZ NewsRadio, Moderna Inc. said they are "proud to be included among the many companies and public health agencies working on a possible response to this continuing global health emergency."
Moderna's Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks told WBZ NewsRadio a month ago that that developing the vaccine quickly was critical.
"Here, because of the pandemic threat, we're actually making some educated guesses together with the NIH, which we're moving very quickly forward into clinical testing," Zaks said.
Moderna got the sequence for the coronavirus three months ago.
Meanwhile, Mayor Marty Walsh said the risk of the coronavirus in Boston is low at this time.
"There's no suspected case of coronavirus in Boston or Massachusetts," Walsh said. "If anything were to happen, we would notify people."
There has been one confirmed case of the coronavirus in Massachusetts earlier this month. The person is a UMass Boston student who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China.
WBZ NewsRadio's Laurie Kirby (@LaurieWBZ) reports
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