Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Shows 95 Percent Effectiveness

The COVID-19 vaccine wars have commenced and with each passing day we get to see pouches stronger than before.

Just last week we saw Pfizer announce that its vaccine has shown over 90 percent effectiveness. This was surely regarded as groundbreaking.

Reuters

However, soon after, researchers behind Russia¡¯s Sputnik V vaccine claimed that its vaccine has 92 percent effectiveness, which created quite a kerfuffle. And now Moderna is entering this battle with the claim that its vaccine is almost 95 percent effective against the novel coronavirus.

This is as per an interim analysis which was released on Monday which involved 95 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections showing efficacy of 94.5 percent. Moderna said in a statement, "The primary endpoint of the Phase 3 COVE study is based on the analysis of Covid-19 cases confirmed and adjudicated starting two weeks following the second dose of vaccine. This first interim analysis was based on 95 cases, of which 90 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 5 cases observed in the mRNA-1273 group, resulting in a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 94.5 percent.¡±

The statement further added, "A secondary endpoint analyzed severe cases of Covid-19 and included 11 severe cases (as defined in the study protocol) in this first interim analysis. All 11 cases occurred in the placebo group and none in the mRNA-1273 vaccinated group."

Reuters

Looking at the positive results, Dr Anthony Fauci exclaimed, "These are obviously very exciting results," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor. "It's just as good as it gets -- 94.5% is truly outstanding."

This puts Moderna¡¯s vaccine on top as it is not just the most effective in the current lot, but at the same time it is also the most practical considering it can be stored for up to 6 months at temperatures of -20 degrees celsius, and once thawed, for up to 30 days in standard refrigeration temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees celsius.

Pfizer¡¯s vaccine on the other hand requires temperatures to be around -70 degrees to -80 degrees celsius at all times, which can be difficult to achieve in some cases.

Reuters

Moderna has also announced that it plans to apply to the FDA for emergency-use authorisation in the coming weeks. Moderna promises to have 20 million doses ready to ship in the US before the end of 2020, while also aiming to manufacture up to a billion doses globally next year.