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.
But experts believe the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will continue to be useful against the pandemic in the United States and around the world.
“Among all participants from different geographical countries and also those infected with an emerging viral variant, Janssen’s candidate for COVID-19 vaccine was 66% effective at reaching the combined endpoints of moderate and severe COVID-19, 28 days after vaccination. The start of protection was already observed on day 14, “reads the company’s statement.
Janssen is Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine arm.
“The level of protection against moderate and severe COVID-19 infection was 72% in the US, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa, 28 days after vaccination.”
“We are 85% effective in preventing serious illnesses, which we define as illnesses that make you feel particularly ill, or can go to the hospital, or worse,” said Dr. Mathai Mammen, Head of Research and Development at Johnson. & Johnson, told CNN.
“And we are completely protective at the moment. It seems to be 100% protective, against diseases that do let you go to the hospital, we are 100% protective against death.”
The company said the results are kept in all age groups and people of different ethnic groups.
Moms said the company was submitting an emergency use permit to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within a week. This will be the third company EUA is looking for a coronavirus vaccine at the FDA. Vaccinations made by Moderna and by Pfizer / BioNTech were approved in December and are now given to millions of Americans.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccination expert at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, said that under normal circumstances there is not much market for a vaccine that is significantly less effective. than two others already on the market. But he added that these are not normal times, with a raging pandemic and a shortage of vaccines.
Pfizer and Moderna both use genetic technology called messenger RNA, or mRNA technology. Johnson & Johnson uses an attenuated cold virus, known as adenovirus, to carry genetic instructions into the body to elicit an immune response.
“In a better world, we would have abundant amounts of this messenger RNA vaccine, Pfizer and Moderna, and it would be damning for a vaccine that is clearly less effective. But that said, we have limited amounts of mRNA. vaccine, “Offit said.
Offit was vaccinated, but said that if he did not do so, he would first look for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, and then he would take a Johnson & Johnson vaccine if it was available within a reasonable period of time. . .Offit said that taking one vaccine and later another vaccine should not pose safety problems.
“I will try to get an mRNA vaccine first,” Offit said. “If I can not get it, and because I know I may not be able to get Pfizer or Moderna for many months, and because I know that this virus is still spreading across the country, I take J&J in the safe knowledge that I have Pfizer or Modern can get. later. ”
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has benefits, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“A vaccine that is cheap, it’s a single dose, and that does not meet cold chain requirements – it’s pretty good,” Fauci told CNN.
There have also been no cases of severe allergic reactions, called anaphylaxis, the company said.
Fauci said the results would look even better if Janssen did not have to compete against the 94% and 95% efficiencies in trials with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“Do you know what the problem is? If it was there and we did not have the Moderna 94-95% … We would have said wow, an effective vaccine of 72% that is even more effective against serious diseases is great., ‘he said in a telephone interview.
“But now we always rate it at 94 to 95%. That being said, it is a vaccine that can be used especially in developing countries to keep people out of the hospital. It has a very good effect against serious diseases,” Fauci added.
Moms said the Janssen vaccine was tested later, after new variants of the coronavirus were already in circulation. One in particular, called B.1.135, was predominant in South Africa when the vaccine was tested there. This variant has mutations that can be expected to slightly weaken the effect of the vaccine.
But it still protected people, Moms said.
“I look at the South African variant and see that we can completely protect against the level of disease, where you can go to a hospital,” he said.
In addition, people do not have to worry about coming back for a second dose.
“We really wanted it to be a single dose. That’s why we optimized our antigen so that after one dose we get enough immunogenicity, as opposed to two,” he said.
“If it’s a single-dose vaccine, a billion vaccine doses can be translated into a billion people being vaccinated,” said Dr. Dan Barouch of Harvard Medical School said.
And, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, they do not need to be stored in freezers. It can be stored for three months at refrigerator temperatures of 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit.
Janssen is already testing a two-dose regimen of the vaccine, which could increase efficacy, Fauci said.
“Let’s see what it shows. It could possibly increase it to 90%,” he said. “Heck if you got 72 with a single dose, you’d think you’d do pretty well with a boost.”
The US federal government has agreed to buy 100 million doses of the vaccine, and the company has been manufacturing doses for months in anticipation that it would work and win EUA from the FDA.
A fourth vaccine also haunts to join the blend in the U.S. market. Novavax, based in Maryland, on Thursday released preliminary data showing that the candidate vaccine has an effectiveness of 89% in trials in Britain. And AstraZeneca is also completing Phase 3 clinical trials with its vaccine.
The Janssen vaccine is made a little differently than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use raw genetic material called messenger RNA.
This one is a viral vector vaccine. It uses a cold virus called adenovirus 26, which is weakened so that it does not recur in the body. It is designed to transport genetic material from the vein protein of the virus – this is the part that the virus uses to reach the cells it targets.
The vaccine asks the muscle cells in the arm to produce these pieces of ear protein. The immune system recognizes them as foreign and builds a defense, so when an actual virus tries to infect, the body is ready to fend it off.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Elizabeth Cohen and Keri Enriquez contributed to this story.