Research shows that Moderna vaccine is better than Pfizer against Delta variants
2021-08-11 10:37:41Source: China Business News
With the spread of Delta virus strains around the world, the effectiveness of vaccines and the inoculation of boosters have become a topic of great concern to the outside world.
A new study published on Monday by Mayo Clinic, a well-known clinical research institution in the United States, showed that Moderna’s mRNA vaccine is significantly more effective than Pfizer and its partner BioNTech vaccine in combating Delta virus strain infection. Effectiveness.
In a real-world study of more than 50,000 vaccinators, the agency found that in areas dominated by Delta variants, the effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine in preventing new crown infections has dropped from 86% in early 2021 to 76% in July this year. %, the infection data of people who received Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in the same period showed that the effectiveness of the latter dropped from 76% to 42%.
Preliminary data released by Israel in late July also showed that the protection rate of two doses of Pfizer vaccine against viral infection dropped to 40.5%.
Dr. Venky Soundararajan of the Massachusetts-based data analysis company Nference Research Institute, who led the Mayo Clinic study, said that although the effectiveness of the two vaccines in preventing hospitalization for the new crown is not different, the results of the study mean that whether the first vaccination is Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine is recommended when choosing a booster.
Judging from the antibody levels 6 months after vaccination announced by the two companies, the performance of Moderna vaccine in terms of antibody persistence seems to be better than Pfizer vaccine. The effectiveness of Moderna vaccination still reached 93% half a year after vaccination, which is almost the same as the effectiveness just after the two doses of vaccination. The effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine dropped to about 84% 6 months after vaccination.
According to a recent Canadian study, in nursing homes in Ontario, elderly people vaccinated with Moderna had a stronger immune response than elderly people vaccinated with Pfizer. A researcher at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Institute of the Mount Sinai Medical System in Toronto, who led the Canadian study, said that older people may need higher doses of vaccines, boosters and other preventive measures.
As Delta variants cause more and more breakthrough infections, countries with higher vaccination rates have begun a heated debate about the third dose of booster vaccination. The latest data also shows that compared with people who received two doses of Pfizer vaccination within 5 months, the proportion of people who were vaccinated for more than 5 months was more infected, which also means that the protective effect of the vaccine will pass over time. And fell.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory group plans to meet on Friday to discuss considerations for enhancing the dose of the new crown vaccine. The CDC Immunization Practice Advisory Committee meeting will also discuss the latest status of additional doses for immune-compromised individuals.
At present, countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Israel have begun to introduce the third dose of booster vaccination for high-risk susceptible groups. However, the booster vaccines launched by these countries are still existing mRNA vaccines and do not target the new crown variant.
Both Moderna and BioNTech also stated that although new versions of the vaccine are being tested against the mutant strain, based on current data, the existing vaccine against the original strain of the new crown is still effective and there is no need to vaccinate against the new mutant strain.
However, the more difficult problem that pharmaceutical manufacturers worry about is that people cannot predict whether there will be new variants of the new coronavirus in a few months. Dr. Ugur Sahin, the co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, said at the earnings conference on August 9: “This is a problem for everyone. If another mutant strain dominates, it will lead to targeting Delta. The vaccine developed by the mutant strain has failed, and we can only prepare for it at any time.”
Moderna said at this month’s financial report that the company plans to launch a booster of the new crown vaccine before this winter. The company is conducting Phase II clinical trials of booster vaccines against three different new coronavirus variants, including Gamma, Beta and Delta variants that were first discovered in Brazil, South Africa and India. Three different booster vaccine studies have all induced The strong antibody response of important variants, and the enhanced neutralizing antibody level is close to the antibody level observed after the second vaccination. This data has been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
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