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. 2022 Jun 29;11(7):743. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11070743

Table 1.

A comparison between COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that are approved, authorized for emergency use, or in late development stage.

Description Pfizer–BioNTech Moderna CureVac
Country Pfizer (Pfizer, New York, NY, USA)–BioNTech (BioNTech, Mainz, Germany) Moderna, Cambridge, MA, USA CureVac, Tübingen, Germany
Vaccine platform
[17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]		 mRNA: BNT162a1, BNT162b1, BNT162b2, and BNT162c2 mRNA: mRNA-1273 mRNA: CVnCoV
Vaccine genetic material composition (mRNA)
[20,26,27,28]

  • The genetic sequence of full-length spike protein with substituted proline (K986P, V987P) a

  • N1-methylpseudouridine

  • Codon improvement

  • GC b-enriched content

  • dsRNA c deletion

  • 5′ CAP1 engineered structure

  • 5′ UTR d: human α-globin RNA with improved Kozak sequence

  • 3′ UTR: AES e and mtRNR1 f 3′ UTR motives

  • 110 Poly(A) g tail with nucleotide-linker (GCAUAUGACU) h

  • The genetic sequence of full-length spike protein with substituted proline (K986P, V987P) a

  • N1-methylpseudouridine

  • dsRNA deletion

  • Unrevealed structural components

  • The genetic sequence of full-length spike protein with substituted proline (K986P, V987P) a

  • Native nucleotides

  • Modified sequence

  • GC b-enriched content

  • dsRNA c deletion

  • 5′ CAP1 engineered structure

  • 5′ UTR d: fabricated with Kozak sequence

  • 3′ UTR harboring human α-globin 3′ UTR sequence

  • 64 Poly (A) tail

  • Poly (C) i-rich sequence, succeeded by histone stem loop sequence
LNPs j
composition
[4,19,20,21,27,29]

  • ALC-0315 (synthetic ionizable lipid) = (4-hydroxybutyl) azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis (2-hexyldecanoate).

  • ALC-0159 (a synthetic PEGylated lipid) = 2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecyl acetamide.

  • 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine.

  • Cholesterol.

  • SM-102 (synthetic ionizable lipid)

  • PEG2000-DMG = 1-monomethoxypoly ethyleneglycol-2,3-dimyristyl glycerol with PEG2000 k

  • 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3 phosphocholine.

  • Cholesterol

  • Cationic lipid (Synthetic cationic lipid from Acuitas Therapeutics)

  • Phospholipid

  • Cholesterol

  • PEGylated-lipid conjugate excipient.
Molar lipid ratios (%) ionizable cationic
lipid: neutral lipid: cholesterol: PEG-ylated
lipid [21,27]		 46.3:9.4:42.7:1.6 50:10:38.5:1.5 50:10:38.5:1.5
Molar N/P ratios
N = nitrogen
(ionizable group
cationic lipid)
P = phosphate (nucleotide group) [21,27]		 Vaccine makers evaluated 6 different formulations Vaccine makers evaluated 6 different formulations Vaccine makers evaluated 6 different formulations
Buffer [4,19,20,21,29] Phosphate (PO4−2)
(KH2PO4, Na2HPO4·2H2O)		 Tris (Tromethamine) NA l
Extra excipients [4,19,20,21,29] KCl, NaCl, Sucrose, and H2O for vaccination CH3COONa, Sucrose, and H2O for vaccination Saline
Dose, dosing regimen, and
route of administration
[17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]		 30 μg (0.3 mL),
day 1-day21		 100 μg (0.5 mL),
day 1-day29		 12 μg (NA mL),
day 1-day29
Stability condition
[18,20,30,31,32]		 (−80–60 °C),
Up to 6 months		 −20 °C,
Up to 6 months		 ≤−60 °C,
Up to 3 months
Temperature range
(−20–−80 °C)
Temperature range
(−2–−8 °C)		 Up to 5 days Up to 30 days Up to 3 months
Room temperature Up to 2 h (mixing with 1.8 mL NaCl expands the span till 6 h) Up to 12 h Up to 24 h
Clinical information
[2,33,34,35,36,37,38]		 BNT162b1 (2417899–75-1),
BNT162b2 (2417899-77-3)		 mRNA-1273 (2457298-05-2) CVnCoV n (2541470-90-8)
CAS m registry number (RN)
Clinical trial registration number NCT04368728;
NCT04760132 		NCT04470427;
NCT04649151;
NCT04760132 		NCT04449276;
ISRCTN73765130
NCT04515147,
PER-054-20;
NCT04652102, EUCTR2020-003998-22;
NCT04652102, EUCTR2020-003998-22;
EUCTR2020-004066-19, NCT04674189;
NCT04838847;
NCT04848467;
NCT04860258
Clinical stage Phase 4 Phase 4 Phase 3
Target protein Prefusion stabilized (S-2P) o transmembrane attached whole sequence spike protein Prefusion stabilized (S-2P) transmembrane attached whole sequence spike protein Prefusion stabilized (S-2P) transmembrane attached spike protein
Furin cleavage site Native Native Entire S1/S2 p cleavage domain
and transmembrane domain
Real world vaccine effectiveness against original SARS-CoV-2 strain of Wuhan
[2,8,39,40,41,42]		 64–99% 68–99% 47%
Real world vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 variants
[2,8,39,40,41,42]		 α (B.1.1.7)
65–100% q (84–100%) r 		α (B.1.1.7)
79–100% q (90–96%) r 		α (B.1.1.7)
NA l
β (B.1.351)
75–88% q (95–100%)r 		β (B.1.351)
88–96% q (96–100%) r 		β (B.1.351)
NA
γ (P.1)
79–88% q (95–100%) r 		γ (P.1)
79–88% q (95–100%) r 		γ (P.1)
NA
δ (B.1.617.2)
79–88% q (96%) r 		δ (B.1.617.2)
NA		 δ (B.1.617.2)
NA
o (B.1.1529)
NA		 o (B.1.1529) NA o (B.1.1529) NA

a Lysine986Proline and Valine987Proline; b Guanine-Cytosine; c double-stranded RNA; 5′ end of eukaryotic mRNA which carries an N(7)-methylguanosine residue linked by a 5′-5′ triphosphate bond with a 2′-O-methyl (i.e., methylating the 2′-OH of the ribose); d 5′ Untranslated Region; e homo sapiens amino-terminal enhancer of split; f Mitochondrially Encoded 12S RRNA; g Adenine; h Guanine Cytosine Adenine Uracil Adenine Uracil Guanine Adenine Cytosine Uracil; i Cytosine; j lipid nanoparticles; k Polyethylene glycol; l not available; m Chemical Abstracts Service; n CureVac COVID-19 vaccine; o two proline substitutions; p Spike protein Subunit 1/Subunit 2; q vaccine effectiveness against infection; r vaccine effectiveness against severe disease.