Companies in different parts of the world are working hard to create an effective coronavirus vaccine. Recently, Moderna released the information that helped to boost its shares. On Monday, shares of Moderna added 9.58% to $97.95. It is worth noting that shares of the company hit a new 52 week high. The previous record was $95.21 which the company reached on July 17th.
According to Moderna, the preliminary phase three of its coronavirus vaccine showed that it is more than 94% effective in preventing Covid-19.
Interestingly, the analysis evaluated 95 confirmed Covid-19 infections among the trial’s 30,000 participants. As a reminder, the company developed its vaccine in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Importantly, the announcement comes shortly after similar news last week from Pfizer’s late-stage Covid-19 vaccine trial.
As mentioned earlier, pharmaceutical companies across the world race against the clock to find ways to prevent the virus.
Moderna and plans for the future
Interestingly, investors were expecting Moderna’s vaccine to be highly effective after Pfizer’s announcement last week. Importantly, Pfizer’s product was more than 90% effective. People should take into account that Moderna’s candidate, like that of the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership, is using messenger RNA, or mRNA technology. Notably, it is a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to provoke an immune response.
However, there are questions regarding the vaccines. For example, how long the vaccine provides immunity and how often people may need periodic booster shots. Moreover, the World Health Organization-backed COVAX initiative is also thinking about the equitable distribution of the vaccine. In the beginning, the vaccine will be in short supply.
Importantly, by the end of the year, Moderna expects to have approximately 20 million doses of the vaccine ready to ship in the U.S. Hopefully, the company remains on track to manufacture 500 million to 1 billion doses globally in 2021.
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