Moderna’s vaccine was over 90% effective up to 6 months after second dose

Moderna’s two-dose vaccine prevented more than 90% of COVID-19 cases, according to updated data released Tuesday by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech, slightly below the 94.1% efficacy rate announced when the formula was approved for emergency use in the United States for use in December .

In addition, the vaccine prevented 95% of severe cases in trial participants in the United States, who measured the vaccine’s effectiveness an average of six months after the volunteers received two injections.

Thus, the efficacy of the vaccine from two weeks after the second dose – and on the basis of cases deemed updated – remains in line with previous updates.

In contrast, the results have been published on its specific reinforcements for some of the more disturbing variants.. The company said it had started testing two modified versions of your COVID-19 vaccine in lab mice in the hope that the injections will prevent a variant called B.1.351. This variant, which first appeared in South Africa, has sounded the alarm as it appears to weaken the efficacy of the vaccine approved for emergency use on December 18 by the Food and Drug Administration.

One of the vaccines reviewed is tailor-made for this variant. The other combines the variant-specific vaccine and the licensed vaccine. Both increased antibody levels against the variant in mice.. Moderna has started testing the same vaccines in human volunteers in a clinical trial.

In this way, they showed that their candidates (mRNA-1273,351 and mRNA-1273,211) neutralizing titers against strains of concern of increased SARS-CoV-2.

“The Moderna team continues to make significant progress with our COVID-19 vaccine. We hope to have clinical data from our variant-specific booster candidates, as well as clinical data from the Phase 2/3 study of our COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents. », Said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.

“New preclinical data on our variant-specific vaccines gives us confidence that we can proactively address emerging variants. Moderna will make as many updates to our COVID-19 vaccine as needed until the pandemic is under control. “

The study is ongoing and the reported results remain preliminary. Throughout the year, Moderna will share updated data from the Phase 3 study, including efficacy against asymptomatic infections, genotyping data, additional antibody persistence data, and information on potential correlates of protection.

TeenCOVE’s Phase 2/3 mRNA-1273 study in adolescents aged 12 to 17 is complete, with approximately 3,000 participants in the United States. The study is being registered KidCOVE phase 2/3 mRNA-1273 in the pediatric population aged 6 months to 11 years. The company plans to recruit 6,750 healthy pediatric participants in the United States.

Antibody persistence data up to 6 months published in The New England Journal of Medicine

Antibody persistence data for up to 6 months after the second dose of modern COVID-19 vaccine was recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. This study involved 33 healthy adult participants in the NIH-led Phase 1 study of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine 6 months after the second dose.

As detected by three different serological tests, the antibodies caused by the modern COVID-19 vaccine persisted for 6 months after the second dose. Antibody decay was estimated using two approaches and was consistent with published observations of recovering COVID-19 patients up to 8 months after symptom onset.

Preclinical data on variant-specific booster candidates

New preclinical data on variant-specific booster vaccines have been submitted as a preprint to bioRxiv and will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication. These candidates include MRNA-1273.351, which is more specifically directed against the SARS-CoV-2 variant known as B.1.351 first identified in the Republic of South Africa, and a multivalent booster candidate, mRNA- 1273.211, which combines mRNA-1273 (modern version vaccine against ancestral strains) and mRNA-1273,351 in a single vaccine.

Both increase neutralizing titers against SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest in mice. Specifically, these preclinical data confirm improved neutralization titers with the primary series of mRNA-1273351 vaccine. The multivalent vaccine provided the broadest level of immunity.

Moderna’s vaccine received emergency clearance in the United States on December 18 And since then, it has also received the green light in many other countries, including those of the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Israel or Canada. The company announced in February that it expects to earn at least $ 18.4 billion (€ 15,043 million) this year from contracts it has signed to supply its vaccine. To date, it has delivered approximately 132 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine globally.

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