Moderna Says Vaccine 94 Percent Effective, Files For Emergency OK

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Moderna released encouraging new data about its COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning, saying it plans on requesting emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration immediately.

A release from the Cambridge-based biotech company said the vaccine proved more than 94 percent effective against the virus and 100 percent effective against severe cases in its phase three trial.

Moderna's findings expanded on its previous reports of a large-scale trial of some 30,000 volunteers. The company said there were 185 coronavirus cases in people who received a placebo, but only 11 cases in people who got the vaccine. There were only 30 severe cases, all taking place in the placebo group.

"This positive primary analysis confirms the ability of our vaccine to prevent COVID-19 disease with 94.1% efficacy and importantly, the ability to prevent severe COVID-19 disease," CEO Stéphane Bancel said. "We believe that our vaccine will provide a new and powerful tool that may change the course of this pandemic and help prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and death."

Moderna will become the second company to apply for the FDA's emergency use authorization — Pfizer did so earlier this month. The FDA is expected to meet on Pfizer's application Dec. 10 and Moderna's Dec. 17.

The first doses of both vaccines are expected in Massachusetts by mid-to-late December at the earliest.

Moderna expects to have about 20 million doses of the vaccine available in the United States by the end of this year. That number will grow to 500 million or even 1 billion around the world next year.

The news comes as Massachusetts and the rest of the country are seeing a resurgence of the disease that has already killed more than 267,000 nationwide and nearly 1.5 million worldwide.