EMA begins rolling review of Moderna’s and Pfizer’s updated COVID-19 vaccines

European Medicines Agency (EMA) has begun a rolling review for updated versions of Moderna’s and Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccines modified to optimize protection against newer variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Earlier this month, Moderna (Nasdaq:MRNA) announced that its Omicron-containing bivalent COVID-19 booster candidate, mRNA-1273.21, provided an antibody response that was statistically superior to the original version of the vaccine, mRNA-1273.

EMA has also begun a rolling review of an updated version of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and its partner BioNTech SE (Nasdaq:BNTX).

EMA’s review will first focus on data from laboratory studies in addition to chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) data associated with the manufacture of the vaccines.

The vaccine developers will ultimately provide EMA with more information as part of the rolling review process.

While mRNA-1273.21 is Moderna’s lead candidate for t…

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Moderna’s first bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster candidate shows promise

Moderna’s (NYSE:MRNA) bivalent booster COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273.211, bested its first-generation mRNA-1273 vaccine in a Phase 2/3 study.

The study compared the neutralizing antibody levels generated from both vaccine boosters. The mRNA-1273.211 vaccine booster candidate offered superior performance against all variants of concern, including omicron.

Get the full story from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development. 

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Moderna seeks authorization for COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 6 months old

While a portion of the public is now eligible to receive a second booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine, the FDA has not yet authorized a vaccine for children aged 6 months to 5 years old.

Moderna (Nasdaq:MRNA) is vying to be the first. The company announced today that it is filing a request for emergency use authorization (EUA) for its mRNA-1273 vaccine in young children. The company anticipates that it will complete the filing next week.

Get the full story from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

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Europe orders another 150 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) has announced that the European Commission has reserved an additional 150 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for delivery in 2022.

To date, the European Commission has reserved 460 million Moderna vaccine doses. 

The new deal gives the European Commission the ability to purchase new COVID-19 vaccines. 

The company is currently testing various booster options, including the use of its existing mRNA-1273 vaccine. In addition, it is developing a vaccine known as mRNA-1273.351 based on the B.1.351 variant that first emerged in South Africa. 

Interim data from a Phase 2 trial in the U.S. found that both mRNA-1273 and mRNA-1273.351 led to increased neutralizing antibody titer levels in response to the B.1.351 and P.1 variants. The mRNA-1273.351 appears to be more effective at generating an immune response to those viral lineages. The P.1 variant is also known as the “Gamma Variant.” 

Moderna also recently announced that the…

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Moderna vaccine highly effective two weeks after first dose

A study published in JAMA involving healthcare workers found that the first dose of Moderna’s (NSDQ:MRNA) COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective at reducing the risk of COVID-19 infections.

In the study, participants received two doses of the vaccine at the recommended 28-day interval. Clinical effectiveness reached 95% for days 15 through 42 of the study. But constraining the window to days 15 to 28 resulted in similar results.

The findings suggest that the vaccine can rapidly reduce the incidence of vaccine-sensitive SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers.

Even eight days after administration of the first dose, the vaccine yielded greater than 70% efficacy.

The study authors concluded that their findings were in line with aggregated data for the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccines.

The 42-day study began on Dec. 22, 2020. It involved 4,028 participants.

A number of healthcare workers have made headlines rec…

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Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine 100% effective in teens

Moderna Logo (PRNewsFoto/Moderna Therapeutics)

Moderna (NSDQ:MRNA) has joined Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) in announcing that its vaccine was 100% effective in a Phase 2/3 study involving adolescents. It will seek regulatory authorization to expand the use of its vaccine to adolescents as young as 12 in early June.

In the TeenCOVE study, no participants who received two doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine contracted symptomatic COVID-19.

Using a secondary CDC case definition of COVID-19 that includes milder illness, the trial found that the vaccine was 93% effective in seronegative participants. The secondary case definition requires the presence of one COVID-19 symptom and a positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. The company used that definition because COVID-19 transmission in adolescents is lower than in adults.

Side effects in the trial were generally mild or moderate for v…

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Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine 91.3% effective after six months

The first COVID-19 vaccine to win emergency use authorization in the U.S. is highly effective for at least six months after the second dose. Developed jointly by Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech (NSDQ: BNTX), the BNT162b2 vaccine

The durability of COVID-19 vaccines had been something of an open question, although early clinical data suggested that Moderna’s mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine was effective for at least 90 days after the second dose.

Get the full story from our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

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