Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.19%
is working on several next-generation versions of the Covid-19 vaccine needed to promote protection against some coronavirus variants.
Alex Gorsky, CEO of J&J, said on Thursday that he was hopeful that J & J’s newly authorized vaccine and other current Covid-19 shots would provide some protection against new variants, but it may be necessary to have shots or modified versions of original to use vaccines.
“We have to be prepared,” he said. Gorsky said Thursday. “We must prepare for the worst and for the best hope.”
J & J’s original Covid-19 vaccine was approved by US regulators in late February. In a late trial, the shot was 66% effective in protecting people in a major international study against moderate to severe Covid-19 disease.
But its effectiveness was lower in the South African part of the trial, where a variant spread that showed resistance to vaccines that worked mainly against an earlier version of the virus that was widespread last year.
Other companies including Moderna Inc.
also take steps to develop and test modified vaccines that can better target the variants.
Researchers are investigating whether some vaccines targeted at disorders should be given as a shot or as part of a “multivalent” vaccine that is also targeted at other strains.
Laboratory tests and clinical trials have generally shown that the original Covid-19 vaccines retain much of their protection against a highly transmissible variant first identified in the United Kingdom.
Their potency appears to be reduced against the strain first identified in South Africa, although J & J’s vaccine was slightly effective in a clinical trial to prevent severe and critical cases of Covid-19 there.
Some virus variants “are more worrying because they result in fundamental mechanistic changes, which could have an impact on the transmission rate, for example, or possibly even disease or death,” Gorsky said during an online discussion hosted by the Economic Club of New York.
He said the need for boosters or modified vaccines will depend on how the variants develop in the coming months, but the company is now preparing. “We are working on several subsequent generations of vaccines,” he said.
New Brunswick, NJ-based J&J, is also conducting a study on whether two doses of the vaccine are more effective than the current dose of a single dose. Results are expected later this year.
J&J executives have previously said they are working on a potential vaccine to target the variant first identified in South Africa, but that it is not yet clear which variants it will focus on during further development.
A NJ & J variant-targeted vaccine can be particularly useful in countries that rely on the easier storage and handling requirements for J & J’s vaccine technology. The shot can be kept in a refrigerator longer than the messenger RNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer Inc.,
which may be useful in lower-income countries with a limited distribution chain for cold chains.
Because coronavirus variants are transmissible around the world, scientists are trying to understand why these new versions of the virus are spreading faster, and what they could mean for vaccine use. New research says the key may be the vein protein, which gives the coronavirus its unmistakable shape. Illustration: Nick Collingwood / WSJ
Write to Peter Loftus by [email protected]
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The printed issue of 19 March 2021 states ‘J&J intends to change doses for variants’.