It has now been four months since this investigational vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19 was tested on humans for the first time in the US—and its recently-released trial results are inspiring hope amongst the healthcare community.

The interim report of the trials details how the vaccine, mRNA-1273, was not only shown to be well-tolerated in healthy adult participants, but it also prompted neutralizing antibody activity against the novel coronavirus.

The experimental vaccine is being co-developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and at Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company Moderna, Inc.

Manufactured by Moderna, mRNA-1273 is designed to induce neutralizing antibodies directed at a portion of the coronavirus “spike” protein, which the virus uses to bind to and enter human cells.