WEB DESK
US pharma company Moderna said it would file requests for emergency authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and Europe on Monday. “Vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 was 94.1%; vaccine efficacy against severe COVID-19 was 100%,” the company said in a statement today.
“We believe that our vaccine will provide a new and powerful tool that may change the course of this pandemic and help prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and death,” said the company’s CEO Stephane Bancel.
If the US Food and Drug Administration agrees it is safe and effective, the first of the drug’s two doses could be injected into the arms of millions of Americans by the middle of December.
American pharmaceutical Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech applied for similar approvals last week, and their vaccine could be greenlit in the US shortly after December 10.
The Moderna vaccine, which was co-developed with the US National Institutes of Health, is being studied in a clinical trial with more than 30,000 participants across the United States.
An interim analysis announced earlier this month was based on 95 patients who fell sick with Covid-19.
The final analysis was based on 196 cases, 185 of which were observed in a group assigned a placebo versus 11 who received the shots.