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Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine seems to be 94.5% effective

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More good news on the vaccine front today, as U.S.-based Moderna, Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA) says its coronavirus vaccine appears to be 94.5% effective. This announcement follows last week’s good news when Pfizer announced their vaccine is 90% effective. It is important to note that Canada already has orders in place with both pharmaceutical giants.

Moderna released a statement today saying, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -appointed Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273s reports its vaccine has “met the statistical criteria pre-specified in the study protocol for efficacy, with a vaccine efficacy of 94.5%. 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.”

“This is a pivotal moment in the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “Since early January, we have chased this virus with the intent to protect as many people around the world as possible. All along, we have known that each day matters. 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.

How the trial study was conducted

According to Moderna, “The primary endpoint of the Phase 3 COVE study is based on the analysis of COVID-19 cases confirmed and adjudicated starting two weeks following the second dose of vaccine. This first interim analysis was based on 95 cases, of which 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% (p <0.0001).

“A secondary endpoint analyzed severe cases of COVID-19 and included 11 severe cases (as defined in the study protocol) in this first interim analysis. All 11 cases occurred in the placebo group and none in the mRNA-1273 vaccinated group.”

Moderna says the 95 COVID-19 cases included 15 older adults (ages 65+) and 20 participants identifying as being from diverse communities (including 12 Hispanic or LatinX, 4 Black or African Americans, 3 Asian Americans and 1 multiracial).

Canada has already ordered up to 56 million doses from Moderna, enough to vaccinate 10 million people; The Canadian government has an option for 36 million more doses, which is enough to vaccinate another 18 million Canadians.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada has also signed a deal with Pfizer ‘to secure millions of doses of the possible vaccine’ and it is ‘one of a broad range of candidates’ they have secured access to should they prove to be successful. Now you can add Moderna to that list.

To learn more about Moderna’s work on mRNA-1273, visit www.modernatx.com/COVID19.

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