Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine reaches milestone with 94.5% effectiveness

Moderna Inc on Monday claimed that its experimental vaccine for COVID-19 was 94.5 per cent effective in the prevention of coronavirus.

The company cited interim data from a late-stage clinical trial. This marks the second US company to reveal results of their coronavirus vaccine. When Pfizer announced its vaccines are more than 90 per cent effective, optimism surrounding the vaccine increased. 

Both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine have to undergo safety and regulatory review. But if this works out, the US could have two potential vaccines ready for deployment by December. This would imply that as many as 60 million doses of the vaccine could be put to work by the end of year.

Also read: 'A vaccine on its own will not end the pandemic', says WHO chief

According to Reuters figures, the US could have access to over 1 billion doses of a COVID-19 vaccine from two makers by next year.

The country hosts 330 million people, meaning it would have a surplus of vaccines available. Both the vaccines were constructed using a technology called messenger RNA or mRNA.

The pandemic has infected 54 million people worldwide, and has killed 1.3 million people. Coronavirus cases continue to jump across the world. In the United States, record number of cases were inducted. Many European countries too, have reimposed lockdown restrictions.

"We are going to have a vaccine that can stop COVID-19," Moderna President Stephen Hoge told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Moderna's interim analysis was based on 95 infections among trial participants who received either a placebo or the vaccine. Of those, only five infections occurred in those who received the vaccine, which is administered in two shots 28 days apart.