bioRxiv Pfizer and Moderna vaccines work better than the other 2 vaccines

The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19 virus) vaccine made by Pfizer and Moderna is more effective than the vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson and Novavax1

The study was published on the preprint server bioRxiv on March 21

The study assessed the four vaccines using 14 metrics, including levels of several types of immune cells, such as T and B cells, and immune molecules called neutralizing antibodies

"This is a very good analysis by leading immunologists based on previous research," said Robert Seid, an immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland

Previous comparisons of COVID-19 vaccines have often pooled data from different studies, which may have been conducted using slightly different laboratory techniques

"When you try to compare (vaccine data) between papers, it's been over a year for many of us," said Shane Crotty, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California and co-author of the preprint.

The four vaccines that Crotty and his co-authors studied fall into three categories

pros and cons

Antibody levels induced by two doses of Pfizer's or Moderna's mRNA vaccine dropped significantly after 6 months

Novavax's two-dose regimen induced the same antibody response as the mRNA vaccine

These results generally support previous findings

no losers

"It's not about declaring winners and losers," said study co-author Alessandro Setter, an immunologist at La Jolla University

Novavax's vaccine is licensed in 38 countries

Notably, the study looked at the effects of Novavax injections in only 12 people

Seder noted that the analysis only considered the effects of two doses of the mRNA vaccine