First human trial for COVID-19 vaccine developed by Noubar Afeyan’s company starts in the US

U.S. researchers gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday, the Associated Press reports exclusively.

Scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle begin an anxiously awaited first-stage study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed in record time after the new virus exploded from China and fanned across the globe.

This vaccine candidate, code-named mRNA-1273, was developed by the NIH and Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Moderna Inc. co-founded by Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative. There’s no chance participants could get infected from the shots because they don’t contain the coronavirus itself.

It’s not the only potential vaccine in the pipeline. Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine against COVID-19. Another candidate, made by Inovio Pharmaceuticals, is expected to begin its own safety study – in the U.S., China and South Korea – next month.