Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Is 68% Effective On COVID-19 Strains, Seeks FDA Approval
Briefing documents on the FDA website shows strong evidence that the vaccine prevents serious illness even against resistant variants of the novel coronavirus, including the one that first surfaced in South Africa and Brazil.
The battle against the novel coronavirus is far from over, however, a few vaccines are currently helping us to keep it in check.
But there are several other vaccines that are still in development, preparing doses to help tackle the demand across the world, and one of the players is the renowned pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson.
And their recent trial data has revealed that their COVID-19 vaccine appears to provide more protection against the troubling virus mutations that previously believed. The trial data was released in front of an advisory panel that will denote if this will be the third vaccine cleared for emergency use in the US.
Briefing documents on the FDA website shows strong evidence that the vaccine prevents serious illness even against resistant variants of the novel coronavirus, including the one that first surfaced in South Africa and Brazil.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine -- a single-shot vaccine developed in collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre -- showed an effectiveness of 72 percent against moderate to severe cases of SARS CoV-2 in the US and 66 percent of similar cases across the world. The data also revealed that it was 85 percent effective at preventing severe illness and 100 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 related hospitalisation and death.
Recent trial data has also revealed that the vaccine is 68 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe disease caused by the Brazilian variant, and 64 percent against the South African variant.
While the effectiveness of the vaccine is impressive, it falls short compared to those of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which boast effectiveness of up to 95 percent.
FDA revealed that the data was enough to establish quality and consistency of the vaccine for authorisation. The vaccine seemed to be safe with milder side effects compared to previously approved vaccines and no severe allergic reactions like anaphylaxis were reported.