Millions of vaccine doses could be added to the pipeline in the coming months, perhaps easing the pressure Americans are experiencing as vaccines begin to roll out slowly.
Janssen, the vaccine of Johnson & Johnson, plans to have the results of its late-stage clinical trials ready for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to consider within a few weeks.
“Johnson & Johnson is right around the corner … right around the corner means they’re probably gone a few weeks to look at the data, to have the FDA evaluate whether we’re in a situation or not. can go ahead and start thinking about bringing it out to the public, “said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Chris Cuomo, CNN, on Thursday.
In the US, there are three forerunners.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is probably seeking the FDA to get permission for emergency use.
Many experts believe that J & J’s Covid-19 vaccine has several benefits. While J&J is taking a separate trial to test the two-dose vaccine, as Moderna and Pfizer do, the current trial uses only one dose.
A single person means that more people can be vaccinated because no one has to set aside to give someone a second chance. This would be a great advantage at a time when it is difficult to obtain vaccines.
The other advantage of J&J is that it can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures, unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which requires special freezers.
Schaffner said the addition of a vaccine like this would also really speed up the vaccination efforts in the US.
“In other words, we can bring the vaccine to the people,” Schaffner said, “rather than bringing the people to the vaccine.”
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine was developed in collaboration with J & J’s vaccinations division in Belgium, Janssen Pharmaceutical and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. This is what is known as a non-replicating viral vector vaccine, using a cold virus called adenovirus 26.
Scientists have made this vaccine by taking a small amount of genetic material that encodes a piece of the new coronavirus and integrates it with an attenuated version of adenovirus 26. J&J scientists have modified this adenovirus so that it can enter cells, but not repeat it and make humans not sick. AstraZeneca uses a similar platform, but the adenovirus comes from a chimpanzee.
The adenovirus carries the genetic material of the coronavirus into human cells, tricking them into making pieces of the coronavirus protein – the part it uses to attach to cells. The immune system then responds to these pieces of the coronavirus.
“So you do not get infected with the virus that can give you Covid-19 if you get this vaccine. It only has some harmless Covid virus proteins on its surface,” Schaffner explained. “So it’s actually a sheep in wolf’s clothing, and if your immune system sees it, it responds to it and creates protection against it and in the future against the real virus that causes Covid-19.”
“In the case of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine, you just give the gene in a lipid nanoparticle or a drop of fat,” Offit said. “In the case of J&J, you give the gene into a virus that cannot reproduce on its own.”
The technology used in the Covid-19 vaccine works with Janssen’s Ebola vaccine.
AstraZeneca
The AstraZeneca vaccine is also a vector vaccine. Like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it uses an adenovirus to carry the genetic instructions for making spike proteins from the coronavirus into cells to generate antibodies. The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, uses a virus that infects chimpanzees but does not make humans sick.
As with the Pfizer and Modern vaccines, this Covid-19 vaccine requires two shots.
The AstraZeneca vaccine could possibly go up for authorization about the end of March.
Novavax
The Novavax candidate is a protein-based vaccine created from the genetic sequence for the new coronavirus.
The company uses virus-like nanoparticles as a base and scientists cover the base with the genetically engineered pieces of the coronavirus vein protein.
This vaccine is given in two doses, 21 days apart.
This type of vaccine has been used successfully with other diseases such as the shot for HPV and Sanofi’s flu vaccine.