Moderna Delivers First Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine for Human Testing

This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (orange)—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient in the United States, emerging from the surface of cells (green) cultured in the lab. NIAID-RML via AP

Moderna, a U.S.-based drugmaker, has sent the first batch of an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus to federal researchers to test in humans.

Moderna sent the vaccine from its Norwood, Mass., manufacturing plant to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is based in Bethesda, Md., and part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).