Rather, this is good news in the fight against the pandemic.
The United States Medicines Agency (FDA) confirmed the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, in documents made public two days before a meeting of its advisory committee to examine its urgent authorization to states -United.
The vaccine's efficacy was 85.9% against severe forms of the disease in the United States, and it was also effective against these severe forms at 81.7% in South Africa and 87.6% in Brazil, where variants are widespread.
The FDA independently reviewed the results of clinical trials conducted on some 40,000 people in several countries.
“The scans support a favorable safety profile without specific identified safety concerns that could prevent the issuance of an emergency use authorization,” she wrote.
This authorization could take place at the end of the week in the country.
66.1% effective against moderate forms of Covid-19
All regions of the clinical trial combined, the efficacy of the vaccine 28 days after vaccination was 85.4% against severe forms of the disease.
It was 66.1% against moderate forms of Covid-19.
These data confirm those previously communicated by the pharmaceutical company.
Johnson & Johnson has pledged to ship 100 million doses to the United States by the end of June.
This vaccine is particularly expected because it has two significant advantages in terms of logistics: it can only be administered in a single dose, and it can be stored at refrigerator temperatures, which will considerably facilitate its distribution.