Moderna’s COVID-19 shot 93% effective 4 to 6 months after second dose
Moderna said on Thursday (Aug 5) its COVID-19 shot was about 93 per cent effective four to six months after the second dose, showing hardly any change from the 94 per cent efficacy reported in its original clinical trial.
That compares favourably to data released by rivals Pfizer and BioNTech last week in which they suggested their vaccine’s efficacy waned around 6 per cent every two months, declining to around 84 per cent six months after the second shot. Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.
“We are very pleased that our COVID-19 vaccine efficacy is stable at 93 per cent from four to six months,” Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.
“This strong duration will benefit the hundreds of millions of people who have been dosed to date with Moderna vaccines.”
Moderna posted second-quarter sales of US$4.4 billion, slightly above an average estimate of US$4.2 billion drawn from 10 analysts polled by Refinitiv. Its COVID-19 shot is the firm’s first authorised product and sales were just US$67 million in the same period last year.
The company logged US$2.78 billion in net income in the quarter or US$6.46 a share, beating expectations of US$2.46 billion or US$5.96 a share.
A durable vaccine could mean recipients may be able to wait longer between shots if they do eventually need a booster or may even not need additional doses to prevent COVID-19.
Public health authorities around the world grappling with the highly transmissible Delta variant are debating whether additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and necessary. Pfizer plans to ask for authorisation for a third shot of its vaccine later this month, and some countries – like Israel – have already begun or plan to soon begin administering shots to older or otherwise vulnerable people.
Moderna said its ongoing studies of three different booster candidates induced robust antibody responses against important variants of concern. These included the Gamma, Beta and Delta variants which were first identified in Brazil, South Africa and India respectively. It said neutralising antibody levels following the boost approached those observed after the second shot of its vaccine.