Moderna’s vaccine shows 94.1% efficacy reveals a new study

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-

In its phase-3 trial of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, the result showed that the effect of the vaccine had about 94.1 percent efficacy. The results are very close to what the company had announced on November, during the first interim analysis of the study which showed 94.5 percent efficacy.

According to the study that was published on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, the vaccine, mRNA-1273, can prevent symptomatic infection.

The study indicated that more than 30,000 participants received the randomized vaccine and a placebo. 11 of those in the vaccine group developed symptomatic Covid-19 compared to 185 participants who received the placebo, demonstrating 94.1 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19.

Cases of severe Covid-19 occurred only in participants who received the placebo.

Lindsey Baden, an infectious diseases specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US said that their work is not done and it is ongoing to improve the efficacy of it every day.

“Our work continues. Over the next months, we’ll have increasing amounts of data to better define how this vaccine works, but the results so far show a 94.1 percent efficacy. These numbers are compelling,” she said .

She added, “Importantly, the data suggest protection from severe illness, indicating that the vaccine could have an impact on preventing hospitalizations and deaths, at least in the first several months post-vaccination.”

The study enrolled 30,420 adult participants at 99 US sites, including over 600 participants enrolled at the Brigham.

Eligible participants were 18 years old or older with no known history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and whose locations or circumstances put them at appreciable risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and/or high risk of severe Covid-19.

Participants received their first injection between July 27 and October 23, 2020, followed by a second injection 28 days later.

In the placebo group, 185 participants developed symptomatic Covid-19 illness; in the vaccine group, 11 participants did.

Thirty participants had severe Covid-19 — all in the placebo group, said the study.

Overall, reactions to the vaccine were mild — about half of the recipients experienced fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain and headaches, more so after the second dose, it added.

“While these results are encouraging, they are limited by the short duration of follow-up so far. Longer-term data from the ongoing study may allow us to more carefully evaluate the vaccine’s efficacy among different groups, determine the impact on asymptomatic infection, understand when immunity wanes, and determine whether vaccines affect infectiousness,” said Baden.

Moderna’s vaccine was developed in record time because it is based on a relatively new genetic method that does not require the increase of large amounts of viruses. Instead, the vaccine is packed with mRNA, the genetic material that comes from DNA and makes proteins.

The scientists have developed the vaccine with mRNA that encodes the right coronavirus proteins, which are injected into the body. The immune cells in the lymph nodes can process this mRNA and start making the protein in the right way for other immune cells to recognize it and mark it for destruction.

This new development puts the vaccine ahead of its contemporaries in efficacy and delivery of the vaccine. This has given Moderna an edge in the market, spiking its market share to new heights.

The official date of the availability of the vaccine for the mass is yet to announced.