Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine Covid-19 has been shown to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe diseases in a global phase 3 trial, but 85% effective against serious diseases, the company said Friday. announced.
The vaccine was 72% effective against moderate to severe diseases in the US, the company said.
This is a noticeable difference between the vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, and it can let people know who gets the vaccine or when they can get one. The vaccinations already on the market in the US are generally about 95% effective against symptomatic Covid-19, with perhaps even higher efficacy against severe cases.
Experts believe the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, developed by vaccine-poor Janssen, will continue to be useful against the pandemic in the United States and around the world, even if the single-dose vaccine does not become the first choice for many .
For Johnson & Johnson, efficacy was moderate to severe from country to country: 72% in the US, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa. It was measured from a month after the shot.
In South Africa, 95% of the cases in the trial were due to a variant known as B.1.351, which is known to be more contagious and contains mutations that may make the virus less susceptible to the immune response against the antibody – including antibodies caused by vaccination. .
With the variant, “we have a lower protection against milder forms of Covid than in the United States, where there were more typical variations,” said dr. Mathai Mammen, the global head of research and development, told CNN’s Chief Medical. Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Even those who received moderate cases of Covid-19 at trial tended to have a milder course and develop fewer symptoms, he added.
But for Moms, the most important result was how effective the vaccine was in preventing serious illnesses – regardless of the variant or age group.
“Across all geographic areas, in all variants, we see 85% protection” against serious diseases, he said. The trend has increased over time, according to the company, there are no serious cases in the vaccinated group after day 49.
From one month after the shot, all hospitalizations and deaths occurred in the placebo group.
The results are based on an analysis of more than 44,000 participants in eight countries, with 468 cases of Covid-19 divided between those who received the vaccine or placebo. The results were not published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the company said it plans to do so in the coming weeks.
Johnson & Johnson is expected to apply to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration next week for emergency use authorization, which Moms says could come in late February.