Moderna's experimental vaccine was 94.5 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19, based on interim data from a late-stage trial, the company said yesterday as it became the second US drugmaker to report results that far exceed expectations.
Together with Pfizer's vaccine, which is also more than 90 per cent effective, and pending more safety data and regulatory review, the United States could have two vaccines authorised for emergency use in December, with as several as 60 million doses of vaccine available this year.
Next year, the US could have access to more than 1 billion doses just from both vaccine makers, more than needed for the country's 330 million residents.
The vaccines, both developed with new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA), represent powerful tools to fight the pandemic. The news comes at a time when Covid-19 cases are soaring.
"We're going to have a vaccine that can stop Covid-19," Moderna president Stephen Hoge said.
Moderna's interim analysis was based on 95 infections among trial participants who received either a placebo or the vaccine. Only five infections occurred in those who received the vaccine, which is administered in two shots 28 days apart.
"This news from Moderna is tremendously exciting and considerably boosts optimism that we will have a choice of good vaccines in the next few months," said professor of experimental medicine Peter Openshaw at Imperial College London.
"This latest press release is based on a study of 30,000 US adults, including several high-risk or elderly persons. This gives us confidence that the results are relevant in the people most at risk of Covid-19."
Moderna said it expects to have enough safety data required for US drug authorisation in the next week or so.
A key advantage of Moderna's vaccine is that it doesn't need ultra-cold storage like Pfizer's, making it easier to distribute.
Moderna expects its vaccine to be stable at normal fridge temperatures of 2 to 8 deg C for 30 days and it can be stored for up to six months at minus 20 deg C.
Pfizer's vaccine must be stored at minus 70 deg C. It can be kept for up to five days at standard fridge temperatures or for up to 15 days in a thermal shipping box.
Another promising vaccine candidate, which is being developed by French drugmaker Sanofi, would not need to be super-cooled either. "Our vaccine will be like the flu vaccine, you can keep it in your refrigerator," the firm's France chief Olivier Bogillot told French news channel CNews.
Sanofi's vaccineas well as Johnson & Johnson'suses an adenovirus vector to deliver genetic material from the coronavirus into the body to prompt an immune response. It's expected to be available for distribution next June.
The results of the Sanofi vaccine's phase 2 tests will be made public early next month, Mr Bogillot said. If those results are positive, then phase 3 trials involving thousands of people will begin, alongside mass production.
Separately, Johnson & Johnson yesterday launched a new large-scale, late-stage trial to test a two-dose regimen of its vaccine.
The US drugmaker plans to enrol up to 30,000 participants for the study and run it in parallel with a one-dose trial with as several as 60,000 volunteers that began in September.
The British arm of the study is aiming to recruit 6,000 participants and the rest will join from other countries with a high incidence of Covid-19 cases such as the United States, Belgium, Colombia, France, Germany, the Philippines, South Africa and Spain, it said.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE