How the Moderna vaccine against coronavirus differs from Pfizer

But there are some key differences. Most importantly, the Moderna vaccine can be stored in normal freezers and does not require a super-cold transport network, making it more accessible to smaller facilities and local communities.

The US Food and Drug Administration intends to grant authorization for the Modern Emergency Use of the Vaccine, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center for the Evaluation and Research of Organic Products, said Thursday night.

What is Modern?

Modern Headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

While Pfizer is a pharmaceutical monster, Moderna – short for modified RNA – is a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Established in 2010, Moderna has never brought a product to market or obtained any of the nine vaccine candidates approved for use by the FDA. He had also never brought a product into the third phase of a previous clinical trial.

The company’s scientists have already collaborated with researchers at the National Institutes of Health on a vaccine for another coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). When Chinese researchers launched the genomic sequence of the new coronavirus in mid-January, they started with a leap.

The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, received development assistance from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The U.S. Authority for Advanced Biomedical Research and Development, known as BARDA, has supported late-stage clinical trials and helped expand production.

The FDA’s green light clinical trials on the Moderna vaccine on March 3, the first to come out of the gate. His advanced clinical trial began on July 27 and was the first government-funded Phase 3 clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States. The company applied to the FDA for emergency use of the vaccine on November 30.

Does the vaccine work?

The Moderna vaccine has been effective in preventing total Covid-19 cases and in severely limiting Covid-19 during the trial.

The effectiveness of the vaccine against Covid-19 was 94.1%, occurring at least 14 days after the second dose, according to an information document published by an advisory committee to the FDA.

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In the Moderna study, 15,000 study participants received a placebo, which is a saline shot that has no effect. Within a few months, 185 of them had developed Covid-19, 30 developing severe forms of the disease. One of them died.

Another 15,000 participants received the vaccine and only 11 of them developed Covid-19. None of the 11 became seriously ill.

The vaccine was effective in all age groups, genders, racial and ethnic groups and participants with medical comorbidities associated with a high risk of severe Covid-19, according to the information document. About 10% of the study participants were black and 20% were Hispanic or Latino.

How does it work?

Like the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna offers messenger RNA or mRNA, which is a genetic recipe for making a piece of the tips above the coronavirus. Once injected, the body’s immune system produces antibodies against the peaks. If a vaccinated person is subsequently exposed to the coronavirus, these antibodies should be ready to attack the virus.

The Moderna vaccine contains in particular a synthetic mRNA that encodes a structure called the “stable pre-fused glycoprotein” of the virus.

The vaccine also contains fatty materials called lipids, tromethamine, tromethamine hydrochloride, acetic acid, sodium acetate and sucrose.

How is the Modern Pfizer vaccine different?

The two vaccines are very similar, but they have some key differences that make the Moderna vaccine “more flexible,” as US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said last month.

Effectiveness: Both the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine showed similar levels of efficacy of almost 95%.

“They seem to be roughly equivalent,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, told CNN on New Day on Tuesday.

Structure: Both vaccines rely on mRNA or messenger RNA to function, albeit with slightly different structures and makeup.

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“Even though they are both messenger RNA vaccines, they are really different messenger RNA molecules, they have so-called lipid delivery systems, which means the type of fat drop that messenger RNA is in,” Offit said Monday. “That’s why they have different storage and handling characteristics.”

Cold storage: Most importantly, the Moderna vaccine should not be stored in very cold temperatures, such as Pfizer.

The Pfizer vaccine should be kept at about minus -75 degrees Celsius, about 50 degrees colder than any vaccine currently used in the United States. The vaccine can only be put in the refrigerator for up to five days before it expires.

To accept this, the CDC created a complex set of handling and storage requirements known as the “cold chain,” which included expensive ultra-cold freezers and plenty of dry ice.

Instead, the Moderna vaccine can be kept at about minus-20 degrees Celsius, or at the temperature of a home freezer, according to Moncef Slaoui, head of the US effort to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. The Moderna vaccine can also be stored in the refrigerator for 30 days before it expires.

“So this is easier to manage and more often available,” Slaoui said on Tuesday.

These differences suggest that the Pfizer vaccine may be used more for major institutions with established infrastructure, such as hospitals, while Moderna may be more useful for smaller facilities, such as a local chain or pharmacist.

Dosing and timing: The Moderna vaccine is given as two doses of 100 micrograms given at a distance of 28 days. The Pfizer vaccine is given as two doses of 30 micrograms given 21 days apart.

Age: If authorized, the Moderna vaccine will be used in people over the age of 18, while the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for people over the age of 16.

It’s sure?

The vaccine has a “favorable” safety profile, according to the FDA’s information document, “without specific safety concerns identified”, which would prevent the emergency authorization from being obtained.

The most common side effects of the vaccine were pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, joint pain and chills, according to the document. Swollen lymph nodes have also been reported.

In general, “the frequency of non-fatal serious adverse events was low and without significant imbalances” between the vaccine group and the placebo group.

A study participant, 24-year-old Yasir Batalvi, told CNN that he received fever, fatigue and low-grade chills after receiving the second shot of what he thought was the real vaccine. It was fine until the next morning.

Slaoui, the scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, said that about 10-15% of the immunized subjects studied would develop “fairly visible side effects.”

When will I be able to get it?

The United States initially purchased 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine, and last week agreed to buy another 100 million doses. Moderna began manufacturing the first 100 million doses as clinical trials began, Health and Human Services said in a statement.

Once the FDA grants the emergency use authorization, Slaoui said eWait for the shipments to start 24 hours later, so that the vaccines can reach the facilities by Monday morning.

There will be more than 6 million doses of Moderna vaccines shipped to more than 3,200 locations, far more than the 636 sites to which Pfizer vaccines have been shipped.

From there, the vaccines will be administered in an order established by state and local authorities. Vaccine counselors at the CDC have recommended that health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities be the first in line for any coronavirus vaccines that receive emergency approval.

CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta estimated that vaccines will generally be available by late spring or early summer.

Jen Christensen, Elizabeth Cohen and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.

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