Morderna, a biotech company said on Monday that their early analysis from its Phase 3 trial has shown results of the vaccine’s efficacy to be as high as 94.5% at preventing the illness.
This news was surfaced just a week after Pzifer’s vaccine announcement, which had their initial analysis to be more than 90% effective.
Moderna’s interim analysis was based on 95 infections among trial participants, who received either a placebo or the vaccine. Of those, only five infections occurred in those who received the vaccine.
What’s more of it is that the vaccine was shown to prevented serious outcomes of the virus, with no severe diseases reported for those who received the vaccine, while eleven cases reported from those with placebo.
“Given the importance of severe disease that sometimes leads to hospitalization, and those hospitalizations that sometimes leads to ICU, and in the worst-case outcome, death, is a very important impact that we see in our vaccine,” Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, said on a call with journalists Monday.
The vaccine, unlike the Pzifer’s, requires no ultracold storage for it to be kept, which would help a lot of the countries all around the globe that might not have the appropriate facilities.
“The results of this trial are truly striking,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday on the call with Moderna.
Phase 3 trial had involved over 30,000 participants from the United States, including 65 people from communities of color that are of high-risk conditions, where it has shown to be equally effective.
“These early results suggest that there was a representation across different age groups and diverse communities in the protected group,” she said in a statement. “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.”
Moderna’s vaccine is said to be able to remain stable at a standard refrigerator temperature (2-7 degrees Celsius) for up to 30 days, six months in -20 degrees Celsius, and 24 hours at room temperature. These qualities make it easier for distribution to other parts of the world.
As Moderna plans to apply for an emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, by year’s end, it expects to have 20 million doses of the vaccine ready to ship in the U.S., and it remains on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses to ship to other countries outside of America next year.
Fauci added that this accomplishment should never be a sign to keep our guard down, as we still have to practice the virus-spread prevention measures like social-distancing and regular sanitation.
Source: NBC News