The biotech company Moderna will on Monday apply for an emergency use authorization from the United States Food and Drug Administration, after the latest results showed its vaccine candidate was both safe and effective against COVID-19.
Moderna will become the second vaccine maker to request authorization from the U.S. federal government after Pfizer and German collaborator BioNtech last week.
Moderna released new data on Monday morning that showed that its coronavirus vaccine is 94 percent effective, and strongly protects against serious illness.
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Out of the 30,000 volunteers who participated in the study, 196 of them contracted the coronavirus. Of that number, the study identified 185 cases in the people who received a placebo shot, and 11 cases in people who got the active vaccine.
All the 30 people who developed severe illness were in the placebo group. One of them died.
The company’s findings are similar to results from Pfizer, which developed a similar vaccine.
Moderna said it has decided it has enough information to submit an application to the Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA will consider their request in the coming weeks.
Dr. Stephen Hoge, the president of Moderna was upbeat about the latest results, saying “It looks like in the trial we’ve been 100 effective at preventing severe COVID-19, which is really what’s driving the burden of disease in hospitals and ultimately straining our public health systems.”
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