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The Moderna vaccine which protects against coronavirus is nearly 95 percent effective according to early data from Moderna. The UK Government has said it is in “advanced discussions” with Moderna to secure doses of the vaccine. Express.co.uk has compiled a guide to the new vaccine and who owns the Moderna vaccine.

Biotechnology company Moderna has become the latest to reveal impressive results from its phase three trials.

The company said the candidate vaccine has an efficacy of 94.5 percent based on data from 95 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infections.

Moderna said it intends to apply to the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, for emergency-use authorisation in the coming weeks. 

The analysis published on Monday was based on the first 95 people out of a trial involving 30,000 in the US, with half being given two doses of the vaccine, four weeks apart.

The rest received placebo injections.

The new results came shortly after similar results from US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine was found to be 90 percent effective in preventing people from getting COVID-1. 

This vaccine will soon be put forward for emergency approval with its developers saying it has been tested on 43,500 people with no safety concerns raised. 

Britain has already ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, including 10 million which could be administered before Christmas if regularly approval is granted.

The Moderna vaccine is not expected to be available outside the US until next year, however.

Moderna said it would have 20 million doses ready to ship in the US before the end of this year. In addition, the firm said it hoped to manufacture 500 million to one billion doses globally next year.

Moderna currently has a deal in place with the US to supply 100m doses, with an option to purchase 400m more.

The biotech company has also signed agreements with Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Qatar and Israel, with the European Commission stating it has a “potential purchase agreement” for 80m to 160m doses.

The US is not part of the EU vaccine purchase scheme, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock arguing in July, the UK Government could source a vaccine faster on its own.

A UK Government spokesman has confirmed the country is in “advanced discussions” to procure the vaccine.

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Who owns Moderna?

Moderna is an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge in Massachusetts.

Since 2011, it has been led by CEO Stéphane Bancel, a French businessman with experience in pharmaceutical sales.

The US company focuses on drug discovery, drug development and vaccine technologies based exclusively on messenger RNA.

How does the Moderna vaccine work?

The RNA vaccine means the vaccine involves injecting part of the coronavirus’s genetic code into the body.

The vaccine begins by making viral proteins, but not the whole virus, which is enough to train the immune system to attack.

The body is then trained to make both antibodies and T-cells to fight the virus.

How is the Moderna vaccine different from the Pfizer vaccine?

The Moderna vaccine is based on similar mRNA technology as the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine, however, is different in one very significant way compared to the Pfizer vaccine: it does not require cold storage.

The Pfizer vaccine requires ultracold freezing between -70C ad -80C from production to patient.

Moderna said it had improved the shelf life and stability of its own vaccine, meaning that it can be stored at standard refrigeration temperatures of 2C to 8C for 30 days and can be stored for six months at -20C for shipping and long-term storage.

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