World News | Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccine is 94.5 Pc Effective

Massachusetts [US], November 16 (ANI): US biotech company Moderna on Monday announced a new potential Covid-19 vaccine, which has been shown to be 94.5 per cent effective at protecting people from coronavirus, according to interim results from late-stage clinical trials.

This announcement followed announcements by US giant Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech who said their vaccine, was found to be more than 90 per cent effective.

Also Read | Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine 94.5% Effective in Phase 3 Trials, Likely to Receive Emergency Use Approval From US FDA.

Both shots rely on a technology called messenger RNA, which is designed to transform the body's own cells to making the vaccine.

Stephane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive termed it as a "pivotal" moment in the development of the vaccine, on which the company had been working since early this January.

Also Read | Pakistan: Passenger Van Plunged into a Ravine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8 Killed, 11 Injured.

"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 Bancel in a statement.

Moderna also said it expected its vaccine to remain stable when refrigerated at between 2C and 8C for 30 days, significantly longer than the shot developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, which can survive in a normal fridge for only up to five days and must otherwise be stored at minus 75C.

"The independent, NIH-appointed Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19, has informed Moderna that the trial has met the statistical criteria pre-specified in the study protocol for efficacy, with a vaccine efficacy of 94.5 per cent," the company said in a statement.

This study, known as the COVE study, enrolled more than 30,000 participants in the U.S. and is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The company said that the first interim analysis was based on 95 cases, of which 90 cases 90 cases of COVID-19 were observed in the placebo group versus 5 cases observed in the mRNA-1273 group, resulting in a point estimate of vaccine efficacy of 94.5 per cent (p

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)