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Pharmaceutical company Moderna said Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine was 94.5% effective according to initial results from its ongoing study. Moderna is the second company to publish positive preliminary data on a coronavirus vaccine. Pfizer revealed last week that his vaccine candidate is 90% effective.
"These are obviously very exciting results," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, told CNN. "It's as good as it gets - 94.5% are really excellent."
The study, which was carried out in collaboration with NIAID and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, involved more than 30,000 participants in the United States. The first interim analysis is based on 95 COVID-19 cases, 90 of which were in the placebo group and 5 in the vaccine group, Moderna said. A second analysis found 11 severe COVID-19 cases among study participants, all of whom were part of the placebo group.
Finding a vaccine against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is seen as the greatest hope of lifting the restrictions that people around the world live under. There are a number of efforts in different countries to find a viable vaccine.
During a press conference at the White House on Friday, US officials said they are hoping for enough doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for 20 million Americans in December.
There have been more than 11 million coronavirus cases in the United States with more than 246,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 54 million cases and 1.3 million deaths worldwide.
Moderna has announced that it will submit an emergency permit to the US Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks.
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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions about a disease or health goals.
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