Vials are prepped to receive doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which the company says has strong efficacy against the disease.
Johnson & Johnson
Science‘s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Less than 24 hours after the small biotech Novavax announced the largely successful results of its COVID-19 vaccine, a pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), said its candidate also had strong efficacy against the pandemic coronavirus, including several new variants that have concerned scientists. In a press release this morning, the company reported efficacy of 85% in preventing severe cases of COVID-19, including complete protection from hospitalization and death starting 28 days after the dose was given. Unlike other COVID-19 vaccines with proven protection that were designed to include a booster dose weeks later, J&J bet on a single dose strategy, which could help greatly expand the number of people immunized against SARS-CoV-2.
Some protection was seen as early as 14 days after the dose, and by day 28, the overall efficacy against any COVID-19, mild or severe, was 72% among trial participants in the United States, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa, the company said.The results are based on an interim analysis of the ongoing efficacy trial, but they appear strong enough to meet the threshold for authorization for emergency use in many countries. They do not match the greater than 90% efficacy of two-dose mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech but many countries will likely welcome J&J’s candidate given the scare supply of other COVID-19 vaccines.
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“These topline results with a single-shot COVID-19 vaccine candidate represent a promising moment. The potential to significantly reduce the burden of severe disease, by providing an effective and well-tolerated vaccine with just one immunization, is a critical component of the global public health response,” Paul Stoffels, M.D., Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson, said in the company’s release. “A one-shot vaccine is considered by the World Health Organization to be the best option in pandemic settings, enhancing access, distribution and compliance.”
The J&J vaccine was developed by its Janssen division and heavily backed by the U.S. government. It centers an engineered version of adenovirus 26 (Ad26), which normally causes common colds but has been disabled so that it cannot replicate. Company scientists stitched into this “vector” a gene for spike, the surface protein from SARS-CoV-2. Janssen is testing this same Ad26 platform in vaccines against Ebola, HIV, respiratory syncytial virus, and Zika. J&J had $42 billion in pharmaceutical sales in 2019, making it the sixth largest big pharma company.
This is a developing story and will be updated.