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(Reuters) – Moderna Inc said on Monday its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing COVID-19 based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second US company in a week to report results that exceed far beyond expectations.
Below are the reactions to the news.
BRAD LONCAR, INVESTOR IN HEALTH, CEO OF LONCAR INVESTMENTS, KANSAS CITY
“It’s really incredible to think in January and February, messenger RNA was a totally unproven technology for anything, much less vaccines. And you have to give a lot of credit to these companies. And you have to give a lot of credit to Dr. Fauci. It was a big bet, it was a risky bet.
“It is very important that now two vaccines have been successful, instead of just one. The whole country and the whole world will need to get vaccinated one day, and we need a lot of vaccines. We need more than these two to be successful, because we are going to have a capacity limited.
“(Moderna and Pfizer) should apply for approval in the next two or three weeks. And I think it’s fair to say that both will probably be approved in early to mid-December. And I think the first group: healthcare workers and people like that , will be vaccinated before the end of the year.
“To the extent that Moderna makes it logistically easy for delivery and specifically warehousing, that’s very important. Probably the people who will benefit the most from it are the people who traditionally don’t have the greatest access to healthcare: the people in the rural areas, poorer countries or areas “.
ALBERT BOURLA, CEO OF PFIZER, SAID ON TWITTER:
“I am delighted to hear the good news emerging from @ modern_tx’s # COVID19 vaccine development program. Our companies share a common goal: to defeat this dreaded disease, and today we congratulate everyone at Moderna and share in the joy of their encouraging results.” .
ALEX AZAR, SECRETARY OF THE US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, SAID ON TWITTER:
“This news is another surprising result of President Trump’s leadership and unwavering support for #OperationWarpSpeed, an incredible tribute to American scientists and innovators, and yet another reminder that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
ANDREW HILL, VISITING SENIOR RESEARCHER, DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
“This vaccine would be much easier to transport and administer than Pfizer’s. In addition, preliminary evidence suggests that it can prevent severe disease COVID-19. However, the Moderna vaccine is more expensive and fewer doses are available next year.” . ”
“No vaccine company has sufficient supplies available to protect everyone in need. We will need all available vaccines with greater than 90% efficacy to meet global demand.”
ELEANOR RILEY, PROFESSOR OF IMMUNOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
“Although the numbers are small, this trial also gives an indication that vaccination is effective in older people and with BAME and prevents serious diseases, all of which are key to allowing the world to start opening up again. The absolute prerequisite for A COVID-19 vaccine is that it prevents people from getting sick enough to require hospital treatment and prevents people from dying. Preliminary data presented here suggests that this vaccine, and by extension, the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine, will achieve this objective.
“The safety data also looks promising. The side effects of vaccination appear to be in line with those typically seen with other adult vaccines, including the seasonal flu vaccine that is given in many millions of doses each year.
“An important question mark is whether this vaccine, or any of the vaccines currently in trials, prevents disease transmission. Vaccines that prevent symptomatic disease are likely to reduce the duration and level of infectivity, and therefore So reduce transmission, but we don’t, but know if this effect will be large enough to make a significant difference in the spread of the virus within communities.
“But overall, this is great news. Having more than one source of an effective vaccine will increase the global supply and hopefully help us all get back to normal sometime in 2021.”
PROF TRUDIE LANG, DIRECTOR, GLOBAL HEALTH NETWORK, NUFFIELD DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
“In fact, it is very good news to see another vaccine arrive with efficacy results similar to what Pfizer reported last week. This is also an interim analysis, which means there were enough cases among the vaccinated volunteers to make a difference. statistics and allow team to break the blind to determine who had the active vaccine and who had placebo.
“Here they found that out of 95 COVID cases, 90 had received the placebo and five the active vaccine. These first results suggest that there was a representation in different age groups and diverse communities in the protected group. This is really encouraging and shows that a COVID vaccine is a real probability and that having more than one provider should help ensure better and more equitable global availability.
“This vaccine is also an mRNA vaccine, so many of the same questions remain that we have been discussing with the Pfizer vaccine and will be carefully scrutinized by regulators.”
STEPHEN EVANS, PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY, LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE
“This announcement from Moderna is further encouragement that vaccines will be found to have not only acceptable efficacy, but efficacy that is much greater than we had anticipated. This press release is more specific than others, as confirm the numbers in each group, which could be guessed, but confirming it is helpful.
“The range of minor side effects reported is not surprising and is typical of almost any vaccine. These reactions tend to be local to the injection site and are rarely long-lasting or serious.
“Although they reported that the efficacy is greater than 94%, there is statistical uncertainty in this; but based on these data, the efficacy will likely be better than 85%, which would be higher than most scientists expected.
“This is the first study to report severe cases, and although uncertainty remains, the finding that there were no severe cases with the vaccine and 11 cases with placebo is very strong evidence that the vaccine prevents both severe and mild disease. It is likely that convincing evidence regarding deaths will probably only be obtained when the vaccine is in use.
“A wide range of people with illnesses and minority groups, as well as a considerable number of older patients, were included in the trials. We will need a lot more data and a full report or publication to see if the benefit is consistent across groups, across groups. particularly the elderly, but this is definitely encouraging progress. “
PETER OPENSHAW, TEACHER OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AT IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
“This news from Moderna is tremendously exciting and greatly increases optimism that we will have a selection of good vaccines in the coming months.”
“This latest press release is based on a study of 30,000 American adults, including many high-risk or elderly people. This gives us confidence that the results are relevant to those most at risk for COVID-19. and who else need vaccines. ”
Moderna has also announced that the vaccine can be stored in a conventional freezer (-20 degrees Celsius) for up to 6 months, and that once thawed the vaccine can be stored for up to 30 days in a standard refrigerator (2 to 8 degrees Celsius). make the vaccine much easier to administer.
“In terms of side effects, the news is pretty good too. The first dose caused injection site pain in about 3% of people; the second dose was associated with transient generalized symptoms in about 10% of people. people with fatigue, muscle aches and flu. Symptoms. This seems to indicate that they got the correct dose with acceptable adverse events. These effects are what we would expect with a vaccine that works and induces a good immune response. “
“We need more complete details than we have in this press release, but this announcement adds to the general sentiment of optimism about vaccines for Covid-19. What we don’t yet know is how long any protective immunity can last. For that, We will have to wait “.
(Reporting by Josephine Mason, Francesco Guarascio and Michael Erman)
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