By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer

Moderna Inc. says it will ask U.S. and European regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm the shots offer strong protection.

Multiple vaccine candidates must succeed for the world to stamp out the coronavirus pandemic.

Moderna is just behind Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in seeking to begin vaccinations in the U.S. in December.

The Massachusetts company revealed the new results Monday.

It says of 196 COVID-19 cases so far in its huge U.S. study, only 11 were trial participants who received the real vaccine.

Thirty people got severely ill, and all of them got the placebo.

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