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Coronavirus: Moderna says its vaccine remains 93 per cent effective 4 to 6 months after second dose
- The latest result shows hardly any change from the 94 per cent efficacy reported in its original clinical trial
- 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
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Moderna on Thursday said its Covid-19 vaccine 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.
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That compares favourably to data released last week by rivals Pfizer and BioNTech, 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’s CEO 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.
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