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Why Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trial hit a snag

By Brian Buntz | October 22, 2020

Moderna Logo (PRNewsFoto/Moderna Therapeutics)

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial has hit a roadblock. Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) learned that contractors it had hired failed to recruit sufficient numbers of minorities for the 30,000-person study, according to a Reuters report.

The lack of Black, Latinos and Native American patients led the company to tap academic researchers with ties to diverse communities.

Moderna didn’t not immediately respond to a request for comment from Drug Discovery & Development.

As of September 17, African Americans comprised 7% of trial participants, yet the make-up roughly the proportion of the U.S. population is 13%.

The company announced on October 22 that its trial was fully enrolled its trial, with 30,000 participants — 37% of which are minorities.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 disproportionately affects several ethnic groups. African Americans, for instance, are 2.6 times more likely to contract the virus than non-Hispanic whites.

Moderna is making progress in recruiting minorities. As of October 16, 2020, roughly 36% of cumulatively enrolled trial participants enrolled hailed from minority communities.


Filed Under: clinical trials, Drug Discovery, Drug Discovery and Development
Tagged With: clinical trials, covid-19, Moderna, vaccine
 

About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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