With biotech company Moderna on Monday becoming the second U.S. drugmaker after Pfizer to announce strong data from clinical trials for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine, some Americans could be immunized as soon as the second half of December.
Moderna's announcement that its vaccine was 94.5 percent effective came a week after pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German technology firm BioNTech said an analysis found their vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.
Moderna and Pfizer said they intend to file in the coming weeks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use of their vaccines, raising the prospect of at least two approved vaccines before the end of the year.
"These are obviously very exciting results," Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases doctor, said about Moderna's vaccine. "It's just as good as it gets 鈥