Covid-19 roundup: Dai­ichi's mR­NA shot en­ters the clin­ic; South Africa sells its As­traZeneca sup­ply to neigh­bors

An­oth­er mR­NA-based vac­cine is en­ter­ing the clin­ic.

Over a year af­ter Mod­er­na kicked off tri­als for their mR­NA-based Covid-19 shot, Japan­ese drug­mak­er Dai­ichi-Sankyo an­nounced that they have moved their own such can­di­dates in­to tri­als. Like most ear­ly stud­ies, the 152-per­son Phase I/II tri­al will mea­sure how safe the jab is and how well it in­duces neu­tral­iz­ing an­ti­bod­ies against the virus.

The Daichi can­di­date joins a broad­er sec­ond tier of mR­NA vac­cines now mak­ing their way through clin­i­cal tri­als. Those are led by EU-backed and No­var­tis-part­nered Cure­Vac, which is look­ing to pro­vide piv­otal da­ta lat­er this year, and the Sanofi-Trans­late Bio part­ner­ship, which kicked off clin­i­cal tri­als ear­li­er this month.

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