Merck (NYSE:MRK) +1.5% after-hours following a WSJ report that it has started testing one of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine candidates in healthy volunteers.
The study, located in Belgium and seeking to enroll 260 subjects, was reported by Merck on a government database; it is projected to complete in April 2022, although it could finish much faster.
Merck’s experimental shot contains a weakened version of the virus that causes measles, which hopefully would deliver the coronavirus’ spike protein to the immune system to help trigger an immune response.
The company has said it wants to develop a vaccine that would provide protection with a single dose so a second shot is not needed and uses a proven technology that can be scaled up readily for manufacture.
Vaccines from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX), and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) both use the unproven mRNA gene-based technology and also require two shots; those vaccines, as well as a vaccine from AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), are in late-stage clinical trials.
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