Dr. Elizabeth Nabel Resigns From Moderna's Board To Avoid Conflict Of Interest

(RTTNews) - Moderna Inc., (MRNA) a clinical stage biotechnology company, Friday said Elizabeth Nabel will resign from its Board of Directors effective immediately. The decision to resign from the board was to avoid any conflict of interest.

Nabel is President of Brigham and Women's Hospital, which is participating as one of 89 clinical trial sites in the Phase 3 trial of mRNA-1273, Moderna's vaccine candidate against COVID-19.

"In the context of the start of the 30,000 participant Phase 3 trial for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, and Brigham and Women's Hospital's final preparation as a site for enrolling up to 300-500 trial participants, we have accepted Betsy's resignation out of an abundance of caution to avoid any potential of even apparent conflict of interest on her part or Moderna's part," Noubar Afeyan, Co-Founder and Chairman of Moderna, and CEO of Flagship Pioneering.

Moderna is one of the top contenders in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The company has begun its phase III study of mRNA-1273 against the novel coronavirus.

The phase III study, dubbed COVE, is expected to include approximately 30,000 participants in the United States, testing the mRNA-1273 vaccine at a dosage of 100 µg. The primary endpoint will be the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 disease.

COVE is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).