New data shows people who received Moderna vaccine still had antibodies 3 months later

The data came from a small number of Phase 1 participants.

People vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine still had elevated antibodies three months after their second dose, according to new data released Thursday in the form of a letter to the editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

“These data give us even more optimism to hope that the high level of efficacy recently demonstrated by mRNA-1273 in preventing COVID-19 disease will be sustainable,” said Dr Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna , in a press release.

Moderna’s vaccine has already been shown to be over 94% effective in a massive Phase 3 trial, but these results only show the vaccine to be safe and effective for about two months after the last dose.

Moderna’s vaccine could be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration later this month, based on the strength of these results.

But the data released Thursday is promising as vaccine experts still don’t understand exactly how long a COVID-19 vaccine could protect you against infection.

Thursday’s data came from volunteers in Moderna’s Phase 1 trial. The researchers monitored them after the first results were published, measuring the amount of antibodies in their blood over time.

Three months after receiving their second dose, 34 healthy adults still had relatively high levels of neutralizing antibodies – one of the tools your immune system has to fight the virus.

Antibody levels dropped slightly and they were more likely to drop in older volunteers. But overall, the researchers said the results were encouraging.

“The durability of 90 days is quite good, although there are more drops in antibody titers in older people compared to younger individuals,” said Dr Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virological Research and vaccine from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

“This is great news and very reassuring,” said Dr Carlos Del Rio, professor of medicine and global health at Emory University. Del Rio described the results as “very important” and further proof that the “vaccine is not only effective but also durable”.