American biotech company Moderna Therapeutics has announced that its COVID-19 vaccine was found to be nearly 95% effective in preventing the novel coronavirus disease.
The company released the preliminary results from the Phase 3 clinical trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. These trials are conducted in humans in order to assess the safety and efficacy of a vaccine.
Here are more details.
Researchers found the vaccine had efficacy of 94.5%
The findings are based on Moderna’s trial in the US involving 30,000 people split into two groups—one group received two doses of the shot, while the other was given a placebo.
The researchers found that based on data from 95 participants who developed COVID-19 symptoms, the vaccine had 94.5% efficacy. Of them, 90 were given the placebo, and the remaining five received the vaccine.
No severe COVID-19 cases in people who were immunized
According to Moderna, of the 95 confirmed cases of COVID-19 during the trial, 11 were severe ones. However, none of the severe cases occurred in people who received the vaccine.
This development comes days after Pfizer and the German firm BioNTech announced that their vaccine candidate is 90% effective.
Notably, Moderna’s vaccine is also based on a similar mRNA technology as the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
Moderna to apply for EUA from FDA in coming weeks
Moderna said it plans to approach the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in the coming weeks, for an emergency-use authorization (EUA) for its vaccine.
However, its vaccine is unlikely to be available outside the US until next year. The company is projected to have 20 million doses ready in America by 2020-end, and manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.
