After Pfizer, Now Moderna Touts Data Supporting COVID-19 Booster Dose

Moderna Inc MRNA shared a new follow-up analysis through 1 year in the Phase 3 COVE study, suggesting a lower risk of breakthrough infection in participants vaccinated more recently (median 8 months after the first dose) than participants vaccinated last year (median 13 months after the first dose).

Related Link: Pfizer Builds Case For COVID-19 Booster As Protection Wanes Over Time

What Happened: In the analysis, 88 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 occurred in the more recently vaccinated group compared to 162 cases in the group vaccinated last year.

The reduction in incidence rates for participants vaccinated more recently than participants vaccinated last year was 36%. Only 19 severe cases were observed.

Data also showed a numerical trend towards a lower rate of severe cases in the group vaccinated more recently (3.3 per 1000 person-years) than the group vaccinated last year (6.2 per 1000 person-years).

The increased risk of breakthrough quantifies the impact of waning immunity, thus suggesting the potential benefit of a booster dose.

Related: Moderna's COVID-19 Shot Elicits Higher Antibodies Than Pfizer/BioNTech Jab, Study Suggests.

Why It Matters: Additionally, Moderna highlighted a new analysis suggesting that its COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective against circulating variants of concern.

In a prospective cohort study at Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC), an analysis of over 350,000 recipients of 2 doses of mRNA-1273 matched to unvaccinated individuals found vaccine effectiveness of 87% against COVID-19 diagnosis and 96% against COVID-19 hospitalization. Moderna says that the study included fully vaccinated individuals identified with the Delta variant.

According to the CDC data, Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 urgent care or emergency visit was 92% and against hospitalization was 95% at a median of 96 and 106 days respectively after vaccination.

Read Next: Moderna Withdraws Additional COVID-19 Shots In Japan: What You Need To Know.

Price Action: MRNA stock closed 1.58% higher at $434.46 on Wednesday.

Photo by hakan german from Pixabay