Moderna says its coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective. Here’s what we know
Drugmaker Moderna on Monday announced early results show its coronavirus vaccine candidate is 94.5% effective at protecting against the highly infectious disease.
The announcement was made a week after drug company Pfizer and its partner BioNTech revealed the results of an “interim analysis” showing their vaccine candidate was “more than 90% effective,” McClatchy News reported.
So what do we know about Moderna? The Massachusetts-based biotechnology company said it has been searching for months for solutions to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
“Since early January, we have chased this virus with the intent to protect as many people around the world as possible,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a news release. “All along, we have known that each day matters. This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease.”
To come up with the early results, researchers analyzed 95 coronavirus cases out of the 30,000 participants in the trial. Ninety of the cases were among study participants who received placebos, results show, while the remaining five cases were among those who had the vaccine candidate. This indicates the vaccine is nearly 95% effective in warding off COVID-19 infection, the company said.
While a data review found no “significant safety concerns,” side effects of fatigue and pain or redness near the injection site were seen in less than 10% of study participants, Moderna said. Muscle, joint and headaches were also reported.
Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use technology based on messenger RNA, which contains genetic information for protein making. But Moderna says its candidate can be stored at a household freezer temperature of 25 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the -70 degree Fahrenheit temperature required for Pfizer’s candidate, NPR reported.
Moderna said it has been collaborating with the U.S. government’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
The company plans to submit an Emergency Use Authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to the news release. An Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA allows “unapproved medical products” to be used to “diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases when certain criteria are met,” according to the FDA. Pfizer said it also intends to do the same for its vaccine candidate.
What are experts saying?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, called Moderna’s preliminary results “very exciting,” CNN reported.
“It’s just as good as it gets — 94.5% is truly outstanding,” Fauci said, according to the news outlet.
“I had been saying I would be satisfied with a 75 percent effective vaccine,” Fauci told The New York Times. “Aspirationally, you would like to see 90, 95 percent, but I wasn’t expecting it.”
Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, took to Twitter to commend Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s plan for getting the coronavirus vaccine out to the public.
“This news is another stunning result of President Trump’s leadership and his unwavering support for #OperationWarpSpeed, an incredible tribute to American scientists and innovators, and one more reminder that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump on Twitter said the vaccine developments “all took place on my watch!”
President-elect Joe Biden also tweeted, congratulating those involved with vaccine development.
“Today’s news of a second vaccine is further reason to feel hopeful,” he wrote. “What was true with the first vaccine remains true with the second: we are still months away. Until then, Americans need to continue to practice social-distancing and mask-wearing to get the virus under control.”
In the trial, 37 percent of participants were non-white, close to the U.S. population as a whole, Moderna said. Also, thousands of people in the study were older than age 65 or had health conditions that put them at risk of getting seriously sick from the virus.
“These early results suggest that there was a representation across different age groups and diverse communities in the protected group,” said Trudie Lang, director of the Global Health Network at the University of Oxford, according to Reuters. “This is really encouraging and it further demonstrates that a vaccine for COVID is a real probability and that having more than one supplier should help assure better and more equitable global availability.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 7:23 AM with the headline "Moderna says its coronavirus vaccine is 94.5% effective. Here’s what we know."
