Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine 94.5% Effective in Phase 3 Trial

Shortly after Pfizer revealed the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine, Moderna has also announced encouraging findings from its Phase 3 trial on Monday. The biotechnology firm reports that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate demonstrated 94.5% efficacy in its initial interim analysis. This analysis encompassed 95 verified COVID-19 cases within the study group, with 90 occurring in participants who received the placebo and just 5 in those administered Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccine. Additionally, none of the 11 severe COVID-19 cases identified were among individuals who received the vaccine itself.

This represents another highly encouraging indication that effective vaccines could become available to the public in a substantial quantity sometime next year. It’s important to note that this is a preliminary interim report; however, the data originates from the safety board supervising the trial, appointed by the National Institutes of Health. This independent body has no affiliation with Moderna, lending credibility to the results and fostering optimism for ongoing and conclusive analysis.

Moderna plans to submit an application for Emergency Use Authorization of its vaccine candidate in the coming weeks, based on these results. The company seeks FDA approval for use in emergency situations prior to complete and final approval. This EUA, if approved, will be supported by data from 151 confirmed cases among the Phase 3 participants—a total of 30,000 individuals—and follow-up data averaging over two months after case confirmation.

The complete data set will also be shared with the scientific community for independent peer review, a standard procedure in the vaccine trial and approval process.

Both this vaccine and Pfizer’s candidate, created in collaboration with BioNTech, utilize mRNA technology. This approach is relatively new to human applications and differs from conventional vaccines. mRNA vaccines employ messenger RNA to direct a recipient’s cells to produce antibodies, without exposing them to the virus itself. Traditional vaccines generally use either small, safe amounts of active or inactive virus to stimulate the patient’s immune system to create antibodies.