Moderna, Inc.,a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines to create a new generation of transformative medicines for patients, announced that the EMA human medicines committee (CHMP) has started a rolling review of mRNA-1273, the Company’s vaccine candidate against COVID-19, following the confirmation of eligibility of mRNA-1273 for submission on October 14, 2020.
Yesterday, Moderna announced that the independent, U.S. NIH-appointed Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273 has informed Moderna that the trial has met the statistical criteria pre-specified in the study protocol for efficacy, with a vaccine efficacy of 94.5%. This study, known as the COVE study, enrolled more than 30,000 participants in the U.S. and is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“The start of the rolling review process marks an important next step as we continue to advance mRNA-1273 in collaboration with European regulatory authorities,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “We will continue our ongoing dialogue with the EMA as we seek to develop a safe and effective vaccine. We are also scaling up global manufacturing with our strategic partners Lonza of Switzerland, and ROVI of Spain to be able to deliver approximately 500 million doses per year and possibly up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning in 2021.”
About Moderna
Moderna is advancing messenger RNA (mRNA) science to create a new class of transformative medicines for patients. mRNA medicines are designed to direct the body’s cells to produce intracellular, membrane or secreted proteins that can have a therapeutic or preventive benefit and have the potential to address a broad spectrum of diseases. The company’s platform builds on continuous advances in basic and applied mRNA science, delivery technology and manufacturing, providing Moderna the capability to pursue in parallel a robust pipeline of new development candidates. Moderna is developing therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases and cardiovascular diseases, independently and with strategic collaborators.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Moderna currently has strategic alliances for development programs with AstraZeneca PLC and Merck & Co., Inc., as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, and BARDA. Moderna has been named a top biopharmaceutical employer by Science for the past five years.