Daily US Times: Moderna has filed for US regulatory approval of its Covid-19 vaccine so that it can be recommended for widespread use.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will look at the trial data for the mRNA vaccine and decide if it is effective and safe enough for Emergency Use Authorization.
Clinical studies show the Moderna vaccine is more than 94% effective at protecting people from becoming ill with Covid-19.
Pfizer, which has a similar vaccine, has already filed for the same approval in the US.
Regulators in the UK also reviewing data on the Pfizer vaccine, as well as another Covid vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZenca for emergency approval.
Moderna says it also has plans to file for UK approval soon, now that it has trial data from 30,000 volunteers – including high risk groups like the elderly – that suggests the vaccine works.
These three front-runner vaccines have different pros and cons.
The AstraZeneca jab is cheaper – around 4 dollars for a dose, compared to around 20 dollars for the Pfizer vaccine and 33 dollars for Moderna’s.
And Oxford-AztraZeneca jab is potentially easier to distribute because it does not need to be stored under ultra-low temperatures.
But its efficacy in trials (between 62% and 90%) is a bit lower than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The UK has already pre-ordered doses of all three vaccines.
“This is great news indeed – the more trial data that we have, the greater confidence we have that vaccines can be used to blunt the human cost of Covid-19,” Dr Alexander Edwards, associate professor in biomedical technology at the University of Reading, said.
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