Daily US Times: Early data from US company Moderna shows its new vaccine protects against Covid-19 is nearly 95% effective.
The news comes hot on the heels of similar results from Pfizer, and add to growing confidence that coronavirus vaccines can help end the pandemic.
Both companies used a highly experimental and innovative approach to designing their vaccines.
Moderna described the day as a “great day” and the company plan to apply for approval to use the vaccine in the next few weeks.
However, key questions remain unanswered and this is still early data.
The trial involved 30 thousand people in the United States with half being given two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart. The rest had dummy injections.
The analysis was based on the first 95 to develop coronavirus symptoms.
Only five of the Covid-19 cases were in people given the vaccine, 90 were in those given the dummy vaccine. Moderna says the vaccine is protecting 94.5% of people.
The data also shows there were 11 cases of severe Covid-19 cases in the trial, but none happened in people who were immunised.
Tal Zaks, the chief medical officer at Moderna, said: “The overall effectiveness has been remarkable… it’s a great day.”
The company’s president Dr Stephen Hoge said he “grinned ear to ear for a minute” when the results came in.
“I don’t think any of us really hoped that the vaccine would be 94% effective at preventing Covid-19 disease, that was really a stunning realisation,” he told BBC.
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