“Today’s submission for Emergency Use Authorization of our investigational single-shot COVID-19 vaccine is a pivotal step toward reducing the burden of disease for people globally and putting an end to the pandemic,” Dr. Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement.
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine was shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global Phase 3 trial, according to the company. The vaccine is 85% effective overall at preventing hospitalization and death in all regions where it was tested.
Its efficacy against moderate and severe disease ranged from one country to another: 72% in the US, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa. This was measured starting one month after the shot.
In the South African arm of the clinical trial, the majority of the cases were due to a variant known as B.1.351, which is more transmissible and which carries mutations that make it less susceptible to the antibody immune response — including antibodies that would be prompted by vaccination. People who did get a moderate case of Covid-19 in the trial tended to develop a milder course of the disease with fewer symptoms, according to the company.
The J&J vaccine works a little differently than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Those two use messenger RNA, genetic instructions delivered in a fat droplet that prompt the body to make what looks like a piece of the virus. With the J&J vaccine the genetic material is delivered in a a common cold virus called an adenovirus, which has been disabled so it doesn’t replicate itself or make people sick.
The US government has ordered 100 million doses and J&J says it can meet this commitment by June. “Upon authorization of our investigational COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, we are ready to begin shipping,” Stoffels said.