Will Kidney Transplant Recipients Need Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose? NIH Starts Pilot Study - Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX)

A trial has been launched to assess the antibody response of the third dose of COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccine in kidney transplant recipients who did not respond to two doses of the Moderna Inc MRNA or Pfizer Inc PFE - BioNTech SE BNTX COVID-19 vaccine.
The Phase 2 trial is funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The pilot study, called COVID Protection After Transplant (CPAT), will enroll up to 200 people aged 18 years or older who received a kidney transplant one year or more before enrollment and have had no recent organ rejection or change in immunosuppression.
All participants will have had a low or no detectable antibody response to two doses of an mRNA vaccine.
The lifelong immunosuppressive therapy that organ transplant recipients must take to prevent organ rejection blunts their immune response to pathogens and vaccines.
Research has shown that many organ transplant recipients do not develop antibodies against the COVID-19 vaccine regimen.
The purpose of the new study is to determine whether a third dose of one of the mRNA COVID-19 shots could overcome this problem for at least some kidney transplant recipients.
The study team will follow participants for one year after enrollment. Preliminary results are expected in September 2021.
Price Action: MRNA stock is down 2.9% at $470.52, BNTX stock is down 5.3% at $423.69, while PFE shares are up 4.4% at $48.01 during the market session on the last check Tuesday.
Photo by Johaehn from Pixabay

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