The Covid vaccine candidate developed by the US company Moderna is 94.5% effective. The announcement came from the same company, sparking the enthusiasm of the stock exchanges.
An announcement that follows that of the giant Pfizer a few days ago, whose vaccine would have proved to be 90% effective.
Moderna's data "is extraordinary, 94.5% efficacy is impressive. Now, after similar results announced last week on Pfizer's other vaccine, we can finally predict an impact on the pandemic. It's a big step forward", commented Anthony Fauci, immunologist and director of the US National Infectious Diseases Institute (Niaid), who collaborated on the study on the vaccine candidate.
"We expect - he then announced - doses of both vaccines at the end of December for the high-risk categories". Various vaccine candidates therefore seem to be getting closer and closer to the finish line, even if the trials are not yet completed. And Europe is ahead of its time through agreements with various companies in order to ensure adequate supply.
"Tomorrow we authorize a new contract with Curevac for the Covid-19 vaccine, which will allow us to secure up to 405 million doses. This is the fifth contract for our vaccine portfolio and we are working on a sixth with Moderna", announced the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen. At this stage, he specified, "we do not yet know which vaccine will prove effective. The EMA will authorize them only after careful evaluation and it is for this reason that we need a broad portfolio of vaccines based on different technologies". Each Member State, he further assured, "will receive the vaccine at the same time, on a percentage basis, and under the same conditions".
The COVE study for Moderna's mRNA-1273 vaccine enrolled 30,000 participants and two doses were administered to the sample. The first preliminary analysis saw 95 participants with confirmed cases of Covid-19. Of these, 90 were in the placebo group and 5 were in the vaccine group. Moderna now intends to submit an application for emergency use authorization to the US drug control agency Fda. This "positive preliminary analysis of our Phase 3 study gave us the first clinical confirmation that our vaccine can prevent Covid-19, including severe forms," said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. The mRNA-1273 vaccine also presents ease of distribution and storage since too low temperatures are not required for its storage. It remains stable at standard refrigeration temperatures between 2 ° and 8 ° C for 30 days, and long-term transport and storage conditions are expected at standard freezer temperatures of -20 ° C for 6 months.
The company expects to have around 20 million doses by the end of 2020 to be allocated to the US and says it is "on track" for the total production of 500 million-1 billion doses in 2021. For its part, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced the launch of the rolling review procedure for this vaccine, which is the first step in the approval process based on the preliminary results of the studies.
The same procedure has also been started for the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca-University of Oxford-Irbm. To date, 92% efficacy has also been announced for the Russian Sputnik vaccine. Meanwhile, phase 3 of the trial has started for another vaccine candidate, that of Janssen (a company headed by the multinational Johnson & Johnson), while EMA and European national regulatory agencies have prepared a special plan for monitoring the safety of anti-Covid vaccines. on how to collect and analyze the information that will emerge once it is authorized. Companies are expected to submit monthly safety reports. Hopes light up, therefore, but caution is required: "You have to see the data, you can't make a scientific evaluation based on a chat",
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