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The biotechnology company Moderna announced on Monday that its possible vaccine against Covid-19 is 94% effective and thus becomes the second option, along with that of Pfizer, to start a mass vaccination campaign against the coronavirus in 2021 -in should the authorities approve it – something that raised the hopes of the markets that the end of the worst of the pandemic is somewhat closer despite the increase in cases in the US and Europe.
“This is a crucial moment in our development of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate (…) The positive preliminary results of our phase 3 study have given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent the disease. including serious cases, ”Stéphane Bancel, CEO of the Massachusetts-based company, said in a statement.
Preliminary clinical data is based on the analysis of 95 of the 30,000 volunteers in phase 3 of the mRNA-1273 vaccine and the response in five people who received doses of the vaccine, compared to 90 who received only a placebo.
The next step will be to provide all the documentation and efficacy data for at least two months necessary for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant them the emergency authorization, which allows them to be Therapies and experimental treatments against Covid-19 by doctors.
Moderna assured that he hopes to make this application to the FDA “in the coming weeks” and in parallel to start the authorization processes with regulatory agencies in other countries and regions.
“Avoid the euphoria”
The good initial results of several experimental vaccines against Covid-19 have brought a certain feeling of euphoria that today the World Health Organization (WHO) asked to moderate, recalling that daily infections continue to break records and the coronavirus continues to be very dangerous.
“This is not the time for complacency,” warned the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has had to spend the last two weeks in isolation for having been in contact with a case of Covid-19.
The announcements of efficacy over 90 percent in the vaccines of Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or that of the Russian laboratory that develops Sputnik V “keep us cautiously optimistic that there will be more means against the coronavirus in the coming months,” said the director. general at a press conference.
Tedros also clarified, when asked by journalists, that he has not developed symptoms of the disease since the quarantine began on November 2, but that he has not been tested either.
Hours earlier, at the WHO Executive Committee meeting, the Ethiopian warned that a possible vaccine against Covid-19 will not be enough by itself to defeat the pandemic and “will only complement other means available, without replacing it” .
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