It is too bad last Monday Moderna released early data from a trial of its COVID-19 vaccine, The data was not peer reviewed and was way too early to have been released. It has caused inappropriate excitement and could cause people to become unnecessarily and dangerously careless.
Lets look at the data - Wall Street analysts have been parsing the data to gauge the company’s chances of success. Late yesterday, one analyst sent out an analysis of Moderna’s data that investors—not to mention the White House—may not like.
It’s way too early to get excited about Moderna’s mRNA vaccine to prevent COVID-19, concluded Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat after analyzing the company’s data. He explained his reasoning in a 78-page slide deck he sent to clients.
The bottom line? The biggest strength in the data that Moderna released Monday pertained to “binding” antibodies, which are antibodies that attach to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, Raffat said. Problem is, what’s really important for an effective vaccine is its ability to generate “neutralizing” antibodies that actually prevent the virus from infecting healthy cells. And there Moderna’s data is lacking so far, Raffat concluded.
Data releases like the one from Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies have the potential to cause harm, especially with the heighten fear the pandemic has caused. We need to ask that companies take a more responsible approach to the timing of when they release data. Drug or vaccine approval needs to be left to the scientists, not to the general population.
Too early date releases confuse people as to the actual timeline involved in making vaccines and treatments available.
Please, be more responsible.
