The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine may generate more than double the number of antibodies compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new study.
Does Moderna offer better protection than Pfizer?
The study — published Monday in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association — reviewed more than 2,500 health care workers from Belgium.
Researchers found antibody levels were higher in Moderna recipients compared to those who got the Pfizer vaccine, according to Bloomberg.
- Moderna patients had 2,881 antibody units per milliliter on average.
- Pfizer patients averaged 1,108 units per milliliter.
The researchers said the difference may be explained by two factors.
- For one, the Moderna vaccine has a higher level of an active ingredient — 100 micrograms compared to 30 micrograms in Pfizer — to develop the antibodies.
- And the Moderna vaccine has longer interval between doses — “four weeks, versus three weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech,” per Bloomberg.
Is Moderna more effective against the delta variant?
Earlier in August, a study that was published on medrxiv, and has not been peer-reviewed, found that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine may be more effective against the delta variant compared to Pfizer.
- The study found Pfizer’s vaccine was 42% effective against infection in July in the U.S., when the delta variant started to surge. Meanwhile, Moderna’s vaccine was 76% effective in July.
Both Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA technology for their vaccines, which is why they’re often compared. When the two vaccines became available, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the two vaccines weren’t too different in terms of effectiveness.