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reThe United States Medicines Agency has granted emergency authorization to the Corona vaccine from the pharmaceutical company Moderna. The FDA announced on Friday. Use of the drug could begin early next week, government officials said a few days ago. They hoped that nearly six million doses of vaccines could be distributed in the country immediately after approval.
An advisory committee gave the FDA the go-ahead Thursday for emergency approval of the US company’s corona vaccine. According to the information available so far, the advantages of the preparation in use by people 18 and older outweigh the risks, said 20 experts in a meeting held by video link. There was one abstention. A decision will be made in the EU on January 6.
“Congratulations, the Moderna vaccine is now available,” US President Donald Trump tweeted a few minutes after the FDA made the statement. However, experts have repeatedly stated that people in particular need of protection receive the vaccine first and it may take months before sufficient funds are available for the general population.
20 million doses of vaccines by the end of the year
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company expects 20 million doses of the vaccine called “mRNA-1273” to be available in the United States by the end of the year. Production of 100 to 125 million doses of Moderna vaccine is expected during the first three months of next year. Of these, between 15 and 25 million are said to be available outside of the United States. Overall, the group hopes to be able to manufacture up to 1 billion doses of vaccines worldwide by 2021. To have complete immune protection, each vaccinated person must receive two doses.
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Moderna announced in late November, based on its crucial phase III study, that its vaccine was 94.1 percent effective. According to a publication in the “New England Journal of Medicine” (“NEJM”), data from a study called Phase I also showed that the immune response triggered by the vaccine was clearly detectable in the blood for several months. The result could indicate that the Moderna vaccine offers protection against Covid-19 for a longer period of time. But that is not a test.
About a week ago, a corona vaccine developed by Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer received emergency approval from the authority. It has been used in the United States since Monday, but requires a more complex cooling than the Modern preparation.
Both vaccines use the still young technology of mRNA.
