A promising coronavirus vaccine candidate hit another milestone this week, when Moderna Therapeutics began phase three of clinical trials. The move signals the biotech company and the National Institutes of Health, which are collaborating on the trial, are one step away from bringing the drug to the public and commercial markets.

After nearly seven months of global deaths and economic shutdowns wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, people are anxiously awaiting a glimmer of hope for a return to normal routines. This partly explains the continued frenzy over vaccine development, including a candidate from the University of Oxford that also recently entered phase three in Brazil. (Read: Now that the Oxford vaccine has entered its final phase of COVID-19