Moderna has become a leader
The effectiveness of the new Moderna vaccine from Covid-19 reaches 94.5%. This is higher than all alternatives
Vasily Parfenov, Naked Science
Promising preliminary results of the third phase of trials of the mRNA-1273 drug created by Moderna have been published. Out of 95 cases among 30 thousand volunteers, only five received the vaccine, and 90 received a placebo. This allows us to speak about the efficiency (94.5%) higher than that of the domestic Sputnik-V (92%) from the Gamalea Center and the American-German BNT162b2 (90%) from Pfizer and BioNTech.
Immune cells "learn" to recognize the spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus / ©Moderna.
According to the official press release Moderna, among the volunteers infected with coronavirus infection, 11 people suffered from Covid-19 seriously. They were all in the placebo group. 30 thousand people take part in the test, divided equally. This is one of the differences from the tests of other vaccines – for example, Sputnik-V and BNT162b2 were tested on groups that were several times higher than the control ones.
The preliminary test result also contains data on the safety of the two-component mRNA-1273 vaccine. No serious side effects were detected, only common cold symptoms that passed a day or two after the injections. The tests will continue for another two months, and the company notes that, despite the optimism, their results may change somewhat.
In his statement Moderna also informs that based on the third phase of the vaccine trials, an application will be sent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval of the drug for use in emergency cases (Emergency Use Authorization, EUA). In any case, the interim results show sufficient efficacy and safety of the drug.
Judging by the video below, the principle of operation of the mRNA-1273 vaccine is similar to Sputnik-V. It is based on a virus deprived of the ability to reproduce, which carries a matrix RNA inside to encode specific SARS-CoV-2 proteins.
The claimed 94.5% effectiveness is the ratio of patients in different groups of subjects (who received the vaccine and placebo, respectively). Until the end of 2020 Moderna plans to produce about 20 million doses of its two-component drug mRNA-1273. Its market value and the timing of the start of mass deliveries have not yet been announced. An interesting feature of this vaccine is that it is easier in logistics than the alternative from Pfizer and BioNTech. The BNT162b2 preparation needs to be transported and stored at a temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius, and minus 20 is enough for mRNA-1273.
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