Study shows Moderna vaccine creates twice as many antibodies as Pfizer

A study has shown that the Moderna Covid vaccine generates more than double the antibodies of a similar shot by Pfizer and BioNTech SE in research directly comparing immune responses to the inoculations.

Major research carried at a Belgian hospital showed that the antibody levels of individuals who had not been infected with the coronavirus before getting two doses of the Moderna vaccine averaged 2,881 units per milliliter, compared with 1,108 units/mL in an equivalent group who got two jabs of the Pfizer shot.

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The results, published Monday in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association, has suggested the differences might be explained by the higher amount of active ingredient in the Moderna vaccine – 100 micrograms, versus 30 micrograms in Pfizer-BioNTech; the longer interval between doses of the Moderna vaccine – four weeks, versus three weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech.

The Moderna vaccine has been shown to have an efficacy of approximately 94.1 percent in protecting against COVID-19, starting 14 days after the first dose.

Based on the evidence so far, the new variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the B.1.1.7 and the 501Y.V2, do not alter the effectiveness of the Moderna mRNA vaccine. The monitoring, collection, and analysis of data on new variants and their impact on the effectiveness of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines continue.

In Lagos, Nigeria most of the people that have completed the two shots of the Moderna vaccine disclosed to BusinessDay that they felt differently and better than before.

Moderna’s vaccine was associated with a two-fold risk reduction against breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections compared to Pfizer’s in a review of people in the Mayo Clinic Health System in the U.S. from January to July.

There has been growing evidence that low levels of ‘neutralizing’ antibodies are a marker of vulnerability to COVID-19.

Antibody levels in the blood can predict the level of protection provided by Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

After receiving the vaccine, people with relatively low levels of antibodies were more likely to develop symptomatic infections than were those who mounted a stronger antibody response, according to a new analysis of such ‘breakthrough’ infections during the trial of the vaccine’s efficacy.