Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine 94.1% effective, could receive emergency authorisation in US

The US Food and Drug Administration recently said that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine candidate is safe and 94 per cent effective, paving the way for US emergency authorisation. The recent analysis by the FDA now means that Moderna could become the second coronavirus vaccine to be allowed in the United States. The regulators' endorsement for Moderna also comes after Americans across the country began receiving jabs of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. 

The US vaccine panel is set to meet and discuss emergency approval of Moderna vaccine in the coming days. According to BBC, FDA, in its 54-page document, said that there were “no specific safety concerns” and that serious adverse reactions were rare. Now, if approved by the team of experts and the FDA’s vaccine chief, shipments of the second vaccine could begin within 24 hours. As per the document, the US regulators found a 94.1% efficacy rate out of a trial of 30,000 people. 

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US orders additional 100mn doses 

Meanwhile, last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) had secured an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate from Moderna. In an official statement, the HHS announced that the Trump administration doubled the order of the total vaccine shots it initially committed to purchasing from the pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc. in an order worth $1.65 billion. The investigative vaccines will be delivered in the second quarter of 2021 to the US, the Cambridge-based vaccine manufacturer announced in an update. 

Once delivered, the vaccine will be provided to the citizens at no cost and the expenses for the private-sector administration partners will be covered by healthcare payers: private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and an HHS program to cover COVID-19 costs for the uninsured, the US HHS informed. The order placed by the US will ensure the bulk supply of the vials of mRNA-1273 for the Americans until the end of June 2021. The vaccine has been developed by Modern in collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

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