Moderna Biotech’s 2019 coronavirus disease vaccine is easy to distribute, especially to rural areas, because it can be stored for up to a month at standard refrigerator temperatures, Hepburn, the vaccine director for Operation Warp Speed, a U.S. vaccine development program, said today.
Matthew Hepburn’s remarks come on the heels of Moderna’s announcement of preliminary results from a late-stage trial of the vaccine, which achieved 94.5 percent efficacy against 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Moderna also noted today that the vaccine under development is expected to remain stable for 30 days at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2-8 degrees Celsius, exceeding the previously predicted maximum 7-day storage period. In contrast, the vaccine developed by Pfizer, which must be stored at super-cold temperatures or on dry ice for shipping, can only be stored for up to five days at standard refrigerator temperatures, Hepburn said in a press release.
Hepburn said in a press conference, “Stability testing of this vaccine (by Modena) is ongoing, and we can now cautiously optimistically expect that it may prove to be even more stable once the longer-term tests are completed.”
Both the Pfizer and Modena-developed vaccines use a new technology called synthetic messenger RNA to trigger the body’s immune system to fight the virus. Experts have already expressed concern that Pfizer’s vaccine would have to be distributed and shipped in a special storage facility.
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