How the Moderna coronavirus vaccine differs from the Pfizer vaccine

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

Although Pfizer is a pharmaceutical giant, Moderna, short for modified RNA, is a biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Founded in 2010, Moderna has never introduced any products to the market or achieved any of its nine FDA-approved vaccine candidates. Nor had he ever brought any product to phase three of a previous clinical trial.

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

The vaccine, called mRNA-1273, was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The U.S. Biomedical Development and Research Authority, known as BARDA, supported late-stage clinical trials and has helped increase manufacturing.

The FDA’s green light clinical trials of Moderna’s vaccine on March 3, the first to come out the door. Its advanced phase clinical trial began on July 27 and was the first government-funded phase 3 clinical trial for a Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. The company applied to the FDA for emergency use authorization for the vaccine on Nov. 30.

Does the vaccine work?

The Modern vaccine was effective in preventing cases of Covid-19 in total and in limiting severe Covid-19 during the trial.

The effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine was 94.1%, occurring at least 14 days after the second dose, according to an information document released by an FDA advisory committee.
Here’s a look at how the different coronavirus vaccines work

In the Moderna trial, 15,000 study participants were given a placebo, which is a saline feature that has no effect. Over several months, 185 of them developed Covid-19, and 30 developed severe forms of the disease. One of them died.

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

According to the background paper, the vaccine was effective in age groups, gender, racial and ethnic groups, and participants with medical comorbidities associated with a high risk of severe Covid-19. About 10% of study participants were black and 20% were Hispanic or Latino.

How it works?

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

The Modern vaccine, in particular, contains a synthetic mRNA that encodes a structure called the “spike-stabilized ear glycoprotein” before fusion.

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

How does the Moderna vaccine differ from the Pfizer vaccine?

The two vaccines are very similar, but they present some key differences that make Moderna’s vaccine “more flexible,” as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said last month.
Effectiveness: Both the Modern vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have shown similar efficacy levels close to 95%.

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

Structure: Both vaccines rely on mRNA or messenger RNA to function, although they have slightly different structures and makeup.

This is what we know about the Pfizer vaccine, including who might get it first

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

Refrigerated warehouse: The most important thing is that Moderna’s vaccine does not need to be kept at very cold temperatures, such as Pfizer’s.

The Pfizer vaccine should be stored at about -75 degrees Celsius, about 50 degrees colder than any vaccine currently used in the US. The vaccine can be put in the refrigerator only up to five days before it expires.
To accommodate this, the CDC created a complex set of handling and storage requirements known as “cold chain” that included expensive ultra-cold freezers and plenty of dry ice.

In contrast, the Moderna vaccine can be kept at about -20 degrees Celsius, or at the temperature of a domestic freezer, according to Moncef Slaoui, the head of the U.S. effort to develop a vaccine against Covid-19. The Moderna vaccine can also be stored in the refrigerator for 30 days before it expires.

“So this is more manageable and much more available,” Slaoui said Tuesday.

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

Dose and time: The Moderna vaccine is given in two doses of 100 micrograms distributed 28 days apart. The Pfizer vaccine is given in two doses of 30 micrograms distributed 21 days apart.

Age: If authorized, the Modern vaccine will be used in people over 18 years of age, while the Pfizer vaccine will be authorized in people over 16 years of age.

Is it safe?

The vaccine has a “favorable” safety profile, according to the FDA briefing, “without identifying specific safety issues” that would prevent obtaining an emergency authorization.

According to the document, the most common adverse reactions to the vaccine have been pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, joint pain, and chills. Swollen lymph nodes have also been reported.

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

One study participant, 24-year-old Yasir Batalvi, told CNN he had low-grade fever, fatigue and chills after receiving the second shot of what he believed was the actual vaccine. The next morning was fine.
Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, has said that around 10-15% of immunized study subjects will develop “quite noticeable side effects”.

When will I be able to achieve this?

The United States initially bought 100 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine and last week agreed to buy 100 million more doses. Moderna began manufacturing the first 100 million doses while clinical trials began, Health and Human Services said in a statement.
When can I get a coronavirus vaccine?

The vaccine has yet to be authorized first. The FDA advisory committee meets Thursday to discuss the authorization of emergency use for this, and Slaoui said he expects the committee to approve it on Friday.

If that happens, he said he expected shipments to begin 24 hours later for the vaccines to arrive at the facility Monday morning.

There will be more than 6 million doses of Modern vaccines shipped to more than 3,200 sites, far more than the 636 sites where Pfizer vaccines were shipped.

From here, vaccines will be administered in an order established by state and local authorities. CDC vaccine advisors recommended that health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities be the first in line for coronavirus vaccines to receive emergency approval.

CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, estimated that vaccines will generally be available in late spring or early summer.

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

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