Study Reveals Antibody Levels Predicts Moderna Vaccine Efficacy

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JAKARTA - A new study reveals that antibody levels are a good predictor of how effective the Moderna Inc COVID-19 vaccine is. The findings could help accelerate future clinical trials for a vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease.

Regulators are currently relying on large placebo-controlled studies to determine whether a vaccine is working. But the study, conducted by scientists from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Moderna, and elsewhere, suggests that measuring antibody levels in vaccine recipients can also determine effectiveness.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that the Moderna vaccine was more effective in vaccine recipients with high antibody levels. Recipients also reported lower rates of breakthrough infection after being vaccinated.

The study was carried out using data from Moderna's 30,000-participant clinical trial, which began last year and is the basis for vaccine authorization.

Finding surrogate efficacy measures should speed up regulatory decisions about vaccine approval even without large placebo-controlled studies, which may not be practical to do if vaccines are widely available, said Peter Gilbert, a researcher at Fred Hutchinson and the study's author.

Combined with data on Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines, Gilbert said there is a "consistent accumulation of evidence" indicating that antibodies can be used as alternative markers for vaccine efficacy.