Moderna soars 16% after announcing plans to file for emergency use authorization as results indicate its COVID-19 vaccine is 94% effective
- Moderna jumped 16% on Monday after the company said it would file for emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration.
- Moderna said its vaccine was more than 94% effective at preventing people in its late-stage trial from becoming sick. It said that of the about 30,000 people in the trials, 196 got COVID-19.
- If the FDA grants the authorization, the US could start vaccinating vulnerable people before the end of the year.
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Shares of the US drugmaker Moderna rose as much as 16% in early trading on Monday after the company said it would file for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna said its vaccine was 94% effective at preventing people in late-stage trials from becoming sick. It said the trial involved more than 30,000 participants, with 196 confirmed coronavirus cases, 30 of which were severe.
If the Food and Drug Administration grants the authorization, the US could start vaccinating vulnerable people before the end of the year.
The US will get first access to the vaccine, called mRNA-1273. Moderna said it expected to have 20 million doses ready for use in the country by the end of 2020, then produce 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.
The US has already bought 100 million doses from Moderna through Operation Warp Speed. It has said it hopes to distribute 400 million to 450 million vaccine doses through May.
The UK has purchased 7 million doses of the vaccine, with supplies expected to arrive in the spring.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford University-AstraZeneca have also announced preliminary findings indicating that their experimental vaccines are effective, and Pfizer has also applied for emergency use authorization.
Moderna said it expected the FDA to consider its late-stage trial data at its meeting on December 17.
"This positive primary analysis confirms the ability of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19 disease with 94.1% efficacy and importantly, the ability to prevent severe COVID-19 disease," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's CEO, said in a statement. "We believe that our vaccine will provide a new and powerful tool that may change the course of this pandemic and help prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and death."