EMA begins rolling review of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Moderna announced that the European Medicines Agency (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, US 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 per cent. This study, known as the COVE study, enrolled more than 30,000 participants in the US 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 US 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. 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,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna.

Today, the company also announced a supply agreement with the government of the UK to supply mRNA-1273, its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, beginning in March 2021 if it is approved for use by UK regulatory authorities. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK started the rolling review process of mRNA-1273 in October 2020.

“We appreciate the collaboration with the UK government as with many other governments and other key partners around the world,” said Bancel.