Moderna, the US-based biotechnology company has achieved the milestone of passing the primary-stage large sample trial that has shown its Covid-19 vaccine is approximately 95% effective. Their Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough comes about a week after the first US company, Phizer, has announced that their vaccine is more than 90% effective.
Founders Of Moderna Surprised By The Success Rate Of The Vaccine
Moderna is currently valued at $35 million The company was founded 10 years ago and specializes in vaccine technology, drug development, and drug discovery. However, as of November 2020, none of its drugs have been approved for human use. The founders of Moderna themselves seem to be surprised by the success rate of their vaccine.
Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna has described the results as a “stunning realization”, and said, “I don’t think any of us really hoped that the vaccine would be 94% effective at preventing Covid-19 disease”.
With 55 Million Cases, Vaccine Is Long-Awaited
With approximately 55 million cases worldwide and almost 1,5 million Covid-19 related deaths, the public is impatiently waiting for any news on the vaccine front. The second wave of the virus has been making its way through the world quickly, forcing the majority of the countries to tighten the restrictions yet again.
As the second wave appears to be more brutal, many parts of the world have opted for another lockdown, furtherly worsening the already unstable economical situation. Thus, the news about positive results in the fight against coronavirus is truly encouraging.
It comes as no surprise that the US population is celebrating, even though the vaccine is not likely to be available to the general public before the early Spring. The US has had one of the most alarming outbreaks of the virus, with more than 11 million cases and approximately 250 000 deaths. And the quickly spiking numbers recorded in the last month, with a record-high 181 196 cases on the 13th of November.
Experts Worldwide Excited About The News
Dr. Antoni Fauci, the leader of the US Covid-19 Task Force has since commented on the news and called it “truly striking”. He said that the results are impressive and that while he would have been satisfied with a 75% effectivity, he could never expect the result achieved by Moderna.
The CEO of Phizer, Albert Bourla, has officially congratulated Moderna. “ Our companies share a common goal – defeating this dreaded disease – and today we congratulate everybody in Moderna and share in the joy of their encouraging results”, Bourla wrote on his official Twitter account. The congratulations come only a week after Phizer announced that their vaccine has passed Phase 3 preliminary testing with a more than 90% success rate.
But how is Moderna’s vaccine different than the one proposed by Phizer?
Well, the two vaccines are quite similar in many aspects. They both use the same method of injecting a piece of the virus’ code in order to trigger an immune response. Both vaccines shall be injected in two doses, however, the preliminary research has shown that Moderna’s vaccine is slightly easier to store.
We can expect a surge of similar vaccine announcements appearing in the following weeks, as 10 other companies in countries around the world are going through Phase 3 trials. Moreover, more than 50 other global competitors are also delivering positive results at earlier stages of testing, as reported by the New York Times.
Market Reaction To The News
The markets have also reacted to Moderna’s news, with Dow going up the record-high 344 points on Monday afternoon. The stocks that were mostly affected by the Covid-19, such as the energy sector and travel sector have rebounded. Moderna’s stock itself has soared more than 10% up on Monday afternoon. At the same time, tech companies that have been thriving in the past months have recorded a decline in stock price.
Although the worldwide excitement is soaring, it does not mean that the vaccine will be widely available anytime soon. There are still months of further testing that are required before the vaccine will be ready for use. However, positive news coming from Moderna and Phizer can indicate that even if we are not at the end of the pandemics just yet, we have certainly reached the beginning of the end. Moderna aims at one billion doses to be available globally early next year and the US has already announced they will try to obtain 20 million by December. The UK was not far behind, with the announcements that they have secured five million doses of the vaccine.
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