The first experimental Covid-19 vaccine in the U․S․ is on track to begin a huge study next month to prove if it really can fend off the coronavirus, its manufacturer has said, according to Al Jazeera.

The vaccine, developed by the U․S․ National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc, will be tested in 30,000 volunteers - some given the real shot and some a dummy shot.

Moderna Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech company co-founded by Armenian entrepreneur Noubar Afeyan.

Moderna said it already has made enough doses for the pivotal late-stage testing. Still needed before those injections begin: results of how the shot has fared in smaller, earlier-stage studies.

But Moderna's announcement suggests those studies are making enough progress for the company and the NIH to get ready to move ahead.

Moderna launched its vaccine test in mid-March with an initial 45 volunteers. The company said it has finished enrolling 300 younger adults in its second stage of testing, and has begun studying how older adults react to the vaccine. These initial studies check for side effects and how well people's immune systems respond to different doses. But only the still-to-come huge trial can show if the vaccine works.