German company CureVac said its COVID-19 vaccine was only 47 percent effective in a late-stage trial, falling well short of the high efficacy bar set by other mRNA vaccines, The New York Times reported.
CureVac’s efficacy is among the lowest reported so far from any COVID-19 vaccine maker. The interim analysis was on based on 134 COVID-19 cases in the study with about 40,000 volunteers in Latin America and Europe.
The trial will continue as researchers monitor volunteers for new cases, with a final analysis expected in two to three weeks.
“We’re going to full speed for the final readout. We are still planning for filing for approval,” CureVac’s chief executive Franz-Werner Haas was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
The news was disappointing to experts who hoped that the vaccine could be used in low-and middle-income countries that don't have enough shots.
The company, however, plans to apply for authorization initially to the European Medicines Agency. The European Union in November last year secured up to 405 million doses of the vaccine if the agency authorises it.
Meanwhile, independent experts said it would be difficult for CureVac to recover. The results also do not bode well for the shots getting adopted with its efficacy rate far lower than the roughly 95 percent of competing mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
(With inputs from The New York Times.)