After Pfizer it's Moderna's turn. The American biotech company has announced that its vaccine against Covid, currently in the testing phase, has an effectiveness of 94,5%, 4,5 percentage points higher than that of Pfizer and BioNtech, the results of which were announced last week. And exactly as happened last November 9, the Moderna press release mandatedor in raptures the stock exchanges of the whole world, who consolidated their gains, confident of the short-term arrival of a vaccine that can defeat the pandemic that is bringing global economies to their knees. It's right to pull the sprint the modern title, which on the Nasdaq rises by 9,2% to 97,7 dollars from 89,39 at Friday's close.
THE VACCINE OF MODERN
But let's go in order. Moderna's vaccine, like that of Pfizer-BioNtech, is in the third phase of experimentation, that on humans, and the data show that its effectiveness - equal to 94,5% - is exceeding expectations. Both preparations are RNA-based, i.e. they stimulate the production of antibodies against the spike protein attacked by the virus.
The Moderna tests were conducted on 30 thousand patients, through the administration of two doses 4 weeks apart. The patients were divided into two groups, the first was given the vaccine, the second a placebo. 95 fell ill, 90 belonging to the group that had received the placebo and 5 to that of the vaccinated. Among the latter, no significant side effects were found, at most a few degrees of fever, a little tiredness and soreness at the injection site. Not only that, none of the vaccinated had severe symptoms from Covid-19, while 11 of the unvaccinated positives were affected by severe Covid. An efficacy value of 94,5% was calculated from these data.
There are still no precise details relating to the type of protection guaranteed or the effectiveness on the weakest group, that of the elderly, but despite this, hope is skyrocketing. Also because compared to Pfizer's vaccine, Moderna's vaccine has one more advantage: it can be stored for 30 days in a refrigerator or freezer and can remain at room temperature for up to 12 hours, characteristics that make it more easily transportable than the preparation of rivals which instead requires storage at -80 degrees.
Based on these findings, the company announced plans to submit an emergency use authorization application to the Food and Drug Administration. In the meantime, the EMA (the European drug authority) has already started analyzing the data on the Moderna vaccine as part of the rolling review procedure, which represents the first step towards definitive approval.
According to the first rumors, the first 20 million doses will be produced by the end of the year and destined for the American market (remember that Moderna has received 2,4 billion dollars in funding from the US government). The next ones, between 500 million and 1 billion, will be produced in 2021 and will be destined for the global market. The price of the vaccine, according to rumors, will be $25.
THE REACTION OF THE MARKETS
Moderna's announcement triggered a rally on the European stock exchanges which were already in positive territory in the morning. The best is Madrid (+ 2,99%), followed by Milano (+ 2,28%) and Paris (+2,1%). Slightly further back Frankfurt (+ 1,1%) and London (+ 1,1%).
The top three also rose American lists: Dow Jones (+1%), S&P 500 (+0,6%), Nasdaq (+0,2%).
Among the titles, in the Moderna rally (+9,2%), while the rivals travel in the red Pfizer (-1,84%) And Biontech (-11,51%).
(Last update: 15.37 am on 16 November).
