The latest on vaccine trial enrollment

The latest on vaccine trial enrollment

Moderna, the first company to launch large-scale clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine in the United States, has enrolled minorities at levels more than three times lower than those requested by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The trials could be delayed if Moderna doesn't recruit sufficient numbers of minorities. Moderna is aiming to recruit 30,000 volunteers into its Phase 3 trial, and a tweet Friday evening revealed that 18% of the 13,194 volunteers enlisted so far have been minorities, which the company said included "Black or African American, Latinx, American Indian and Alaskan Native." Fauci said he wants minorities to be enrolled at more than double their percentages in the population because minorities have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic. He made clear that this number was a goal, and not a requirement. Minority representation is also important because the safety and efficacy of the vaccine might be different for minority groups than for White people, and so a substantial percentage of the participants need to come from those groups. Another key target: the elderly population. Investigators involved in the Phase 3 Moderna Covid-19 vaccine trial were told that, ideally, 50% of trial participants should be older than 65, according to a clinical trial investigator who was on a call with officials from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health.