MODERNA VACCINE

Moderna ‘mRNA-1273’

Boston-based pharmaceutical giant Moderna developed a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with United States' National Institute of Health (NIH).

Moderna was the first to put a Covid-19 vaccine into human trials in March 2020 and the second to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2020 for Emergency Use Authorization, after Pfizer and BioNTech's Comirnaty vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine has also been approved in Canada.

The vaccine named mRNA-1273 is popularly known as the Moderna vaccine and requires two doses, four weeks apart. The gene-based vaccine is administered as a muscle injection and is made from mRNA.

Moderna had been working on mRNA vaccines for years before it started developing Covid-19 vaccine in January. Despite years of research on mRNA vaccines, none had been released in the market until the Covid-19 vaccine.

Moderna's research was amplified by $1 billion in federal funding.

In March, the company put its vaccine candidate in Phase I trials and in Phase III by July. Complete data of the trials was released in November 2020.

The researchers have estimated vaccine efficacy at 94.1 per cent.

So far, Moderna has signed a deal with the US government for 200 million doses by the second quarter of 2021, 160 million doses with the European commission and similar deals with Canada, Japan and Qatar.