Moderna vaccine to arrive soon as EC Okays its marketing

The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday authorised marketing of Moderna, the second coronavirus vaccine in the EU, following conditional approval given by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said an official press release.

The EC, however, will make the final decision on the vaccine’s permit later in the week.

Meanwhile, it will take a few weeks for the first batch of Moderna vaccine to arrive in Finland, reported the media, quoting officials of the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

The quantity of the vaccines in the first batch will be small, said the THL official.

“We are talking about thousands of doses a week rather than tens of thousands,” Mia Kontio of THL told the national broadcaster Yle, adding, “that doesn’t at this stage quicken the pace of vaccinations much.”

Earlier, on Wednesday, the EMA recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna to prevent coronavirus infection among people aged 18 years and above.

This is the second COVID-19 vaccine after Pfizer/BioNTech that the EMA has recommended for authorisation.

“This vaccine provides us with another tool to overcome the current emergency,” said EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke.

“It is a testament to the efforts and commitment of all involved that we have this second positive vaccine recommendation in just short of a year since the pandemic was declared by the WHO.”

A very large clinical trial showed that Moderna was effective at preventing COVID-19 in people aged from 18 years and above.

The trial involved around 30,000 people. Half of them received the vaccine and the other half was given dummy injections. The participants did not know whether they received the vaccine or the dummy injections.

Efficacy was calculated in around 28,000 people from 18 to 94 years of age who had no sign of previous infection.

The trial showed a 94.1% reduction in the number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the people who received the vaccine (11 out of 14,134 vaccinated people got COVID-19 with symptoms) compared with people who received dummy injections (185 out of 14,073 people who received dummy injections got COVID-19 with symptoms). This means that the vaccine demonstrated a 94.1% efficacy in the trial.