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Moderna, Inc. (RNAm) – Get the report said on Wednesday it had reached a milestone in testing its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
The company said it had completed “case counting for the first interim analysis of the COVE Phase 3 mRNA-1273 study,” its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The report means that there are enough patients with Covid-19 in the study to allow an analysis of the efficacy of the candidate vaccine.
Moderna said it has seen “a significant increase in the rate of case identification at sites over the past week. As a result, the company expects the first interim scan to include significantly more than 53 cases, the targeted trigger point for the scan. “
Covid-19 cases have increased in the United States and Europe in recent weeks as more people are inside due to colder weather and the Trump administration having all but abandoned its efforts to control the disease.
Moderna’s vaccine candidate is believed to be similar to that developed by Pfizer (PFE) – Get the report, which reported preliminary data earlier this week showing 90% effectiveness.
Pfizer’s report sparked a strong market rally on Monday, in hopes that an effective vaccine could reduce the need for home orders and business closings aimed at slowing the spread of the disease.
However, challenges remain. Among other things, vaccines apparently need to be stored at extremely low temperatures before use. The ramp-up of vaccine production and distribution will also take time. And, at least in the United States, there remains a large group of people opposed to the use of vaccines due to conspiracy theories being disseminated on the internet.
Moderna shares were active in after-hours trading, gaining 36 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 82.80. In the regular session, the stock rose 8.4% following reports that Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted that his vaccine could likely be as well effective than that of Pfizer.
The death toll in the United States from Covid-19 has exceeded 240,000, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. More than 10 million Americans have been infected.
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