Moderna Coronavirus Vaccine Found To Be 94% Effective In Trials, 20 Million Doses To Be Ready In December

Interim data suggests its vaccine is highly effective in preventing people getting ill and also works across all age groups, including the elderly.

Representative Image (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)

Coronavirus Vaccine: As the world reels with the coronavirus pandemic, people are waiting for an effective Covid vaccine which will take their life back to normal. Bringing a ray of hope, US biotechnology firm Moderna announced that its Covid vaccine is more than  94% effective at preventing the disease. Interim data from the US firm Moderna suggests its vaccine is highly effective in preventing people getting ill and also works across all age groups, including the elderly. Also Read|'No Lockdown Again': Delhi Health Minister Says Third Wave Of Covid-19 Has Passed Its Peak Moderna released early results from a clinical trial with more than 30,000 participants, after American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech last week said their vaccine was 90 percent effective. Both frontrunners are based on new technology that uses synthetic versions of molecules called "messenger RNA" to hack into human cells, and effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories. "This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease," said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel. "The light at the end of the tunnel just got even brighter," tweeted Atul Gawande, a member of US President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board and a surgeon at a Harvard-affiliated hospital. "We may now have multiple, very effective vaccines distributing widely in spring and summer," he added. Moderna said its available safety data does not indicate any significant safety concerns. The vaccine was generally safe and well-tolerated, and the majority of adverse events were mild or moderate in severity, it said. Severe events after the first dose included injection site pain. After the second dose, they included fatigue, myalgia (muscle pain), arthralgia (joint pain), headache, pain, and redness at the injection site.

20 million doses to be ready in December: Moderna

Moderna said Monday its vaccine remains stable at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a standard home or medical refrigerator, for up to 30 days. It can be stored for up to six months at negative 4 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, Pfizer’s vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. By the end of the year, Moderna expects to have approximately 20 million doses of the vaccine ready to ship in the U.S., the company said. It said it remains on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.