In the EU, there is great anger about possible delivery bottlenecks for corona vaccines.
When looking for alternatives, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is now the focus.
In the fight against the
corona
pandemic, further vaccines are about to be approved.
AstraZeneca's
vaccine could
receive the green light for use in the EU
as early as Friday
.
With the vaccine from
Johnson & Johnson
, the next great hope is in the starting blocks.
Compared to the
competition
, the preparation offers a number of tangible
advantages
.
Munich - The US corporation
Johnson & Johnson
(J&J) is working flat out on the planned market launch of its
corona
vaccine in Europe.
The production of the vaccine candidate at the
J&J
subsidiary
Janssen
at the plant in Leiden in the Netherlands "has already started," a Janssen spokeswoman told Merkur.de *.
However, the spokeswoman did not want to comment on a specific date for the market launch in the EU.
To do this, one must first wait for the results of clinical phase III.
However, the relevant data should be available by the end of January.
Depending on the outcome, one would then "promptly
submit
the application for approval to the European Medicines Agency (
EMA
)," it said.
The vaccine is already approved in Great Britain.
The interim results with the vaccine candidate
Ad26.COV2-S
are apparently promising.
According
to an article in the renowned New England Journal of Medicine,
more than 90 percent of the study participants in phases 1 and 2a developed neutralizing antibodies against
Sars-CoV-2
after the first dose
.
After 57 days, 100 percent of the test subjects would have developed antibodies.
The vaccine also worked very well with older participants.
Professor
Emil Reisinger
from the University of
Rostock
recently came to a similar conclusion
.
The data from test phases 1 and 2 are “very satisfactory”, the infectiologist and study director recently said in a conversation with the Ostsee-Zeitung.
The vaccine is already being used in the UK.
Now the
J&J
subsidiary could also get the
green light
in the
EU
.
Ad26.COV2-S is a so-called
vector vaccine
.
Adenoviruses and cold viruses, which are harmless to humans, are used as messengers that transport the information for the production of the Sars-CoV-2 cover.
After the vaccination, they ensure that small parts of the coronavirus shell are reproduced in the body, thus triggering the immune system.
The antibodies that develop should then protect against Sars-CoV-2.
In contrast to the mRNA vaccines from Biontech or Moderna, vector vaccines have been in use for a long time, for example against
Ebola
or
dengue fever
.
Compared to the already approved vaccines from
Biontech
or
Moderna
or the preparation from
AstraZenaca,
which is also about to be approved
J & J's vaccine candidate promises several key benefits.
First, one vaccine dose is likely to be enough.
With Biontech or Moderna, however, two rounds of vaccination are necessary.
In addition, according to Janssen, the preparation can be stored for three months at refrigerator temperatures.
The
mRNA
vaccine from Biontech, on the other hand, has to be transported and stored at minus 70 degrees.
In addition, the development of the J&J Pharma subsidiary is apparently also effective in older people.
At AstraZeneca, however, the test results indicate that the vaccine is not working in seniors.
This means that the vaccination campaign in Germany could take longer than expected.
The lack of effectiveness of the AstraZeneca active ingredient in the elderly is another setback in the fight against the corona pandemic.
Just last Friday (January 22nd) AstraZeneca cut the promised delivery of its vaccine candidate drastically.
Instead of the agreed 80 million cans, the British-Swedish group plans to deliver just 31 million units in the first quarter.
The company had cited difficulties in the supply chain to justify this.
The surprising reduction in the promised delivery volume caused outrage in Brussels.
In order
not to fall further behind
against other countries such as the
USA
or Great Britain, the
EU
now
wants to take
action.
According to the ideas of EU Health Commissioner
Stella Kyriadkides
,
Brussels
now
wants
to oblige pharmaceutical manufacturers to report possible exports from the EU at an early stage.
To this end, the
EU Commission
now
wants
to quickly introduce a corresponding transparency register.
