On Monday, November 16, US biotech firm Moderna released an interim analysis of their experimental vaccine against Covid-19 in response to the desperate search for an effective solution to the virus. Moderna said that it was 94.5% effective at preventing the disease. The statement was based off of results from 95 Covid-19-infected people of varying ages and ethnicities, 90 of which received a placebo while the remaining 5 were administered the real vaccine, which is called mRNA-1273.

     mRNA-1273 is currently in phase-3 of its trials and, if given permission by the FDA for emergency-use authorization, will provide the vaccine for countries around the world sometime in 2021. The company has already signed deals with several countries, including the United States (100 million doses with option for additional 400 million doses), Japan (50 million doses), Canada (20 million doses with option for additional 36 million doses), Switzerland, Israel, Qatar, and several other countries not announced. The pricing has also been set for the US at $25 a dose for the first 100 million doses when including BARDA grant and potential performance-based payments.

For more information go to:

https://www.modernatx.com/sites/default/files/content_documents/mRNA-1273-Update-11-16-20-Final.pdf

https://www.modernatx.com/modernas-work-potential-vaccine-against-covid-19?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=slider&utm_campaign=covid

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/16/moderna-covid-vaccine-candidate-almost-95-effective-trials-show

*The Moderna logo is a trademark of Moderna and was used as a creative commons image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moderna.png

*Covid-19 virus image is a creative commons image from Google.