The biotech now intends to submit its application for regulatory authorization in several regions, including Europe, by mid-2023, for a potential market launch in the winter of 2023/24. For Moderna’s medical director, Dr. Paul Burton, time is running out. Every year, “the virus causes 30,000 deaths” in elderly patients in rich countries, he told AFP. “This disease has a heavy toll that has been underestimated”including in less developed countries, which concentrate a “large proportion of deaths”car “access to healthcare is limited”says Abdullah Baqui, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, the main instigator of the trial.
RSV, one of the viruses that causes bronchiolitis, a disease that strikes mainly babies, affects about 5.2 million people each year among people aged 60 and over in developed countries, causing 500,000 annual hospitalizations. To date, no vaccine has been developed. For children, Moderna is also developing a vaccine, currently in its first phase of clinical trials.
