Johnson & Johnson reported that
its vaccine is effective
against COVID-19 in
a single dose
and that it is prepared to apply to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorization next week.
If the authorities approve the vaccine, which is estimated to occur at the end of February, it
would be the third available
in the country, along with those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease specialist, was very optimistic this Friday with the results of the Johnson & Johnson studies because it
is a single injection vaccine
, instead of two like those that have been approved, and
only require simple refrigeration
.
"It is cheap and the company is capable of producing doses in the billions," Fauci told a news conference of the White House pandemic team.
The September 2020 photo distributed by Johnson & Johnson shows the vaccine developed with Janssen against COVID-19.
The specialist also stressed that the vaccine is highly effective in protecting patients from severe infections.
"In the study, there were no hospitalizations or deaths in the group that received the vaccine," he said.
Results from the Johnson & Johnson Phase 3 trial, which developed the vaccine in conjunction with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, found that the single dose was
72%
effective in
preventing both moderate and severe infections and 85% for severe cases
, including those requiring hospitalization.
A moderate infection includes symptoms such as low oxygen levels, shortness of breath, or deep vein thrombosis.
The studies were conducted with 44,000 participants from the United States, South Africa, and several Latin American countries.
Efficacy varies by region.
In Latin America, the effectiveness detected was lower, 66%.
And in South Africa, where a new, more contagious strain has been detected, it is 57%.
[Novavax reports that its COVID-19 vaccine is 89.3% effective]
However, the vaccine would generally provide high protection to avoid serious illness.
"Not a single person who got vaccinated and got the infection after four weeks ended up in a hospital," Dr. Mathai Mammen, Johnson & Johnson's global director of pharmaceutical research and development, told our sister network NBC News.
California implements a pilot program to vaccinate agricultural workers
Jan. 28, 202101: 49
"This leads me to believe that this vaccine will stop this pandemic," Mammen said. There were also
no
major
side effects
, including severe allergic reactions such as anaphylaxis.
Still, the lower efficacy of the vaccine against the detected South African variant is concerning.
The first cases of this mutation have already been detected in the United States.
With information from NBC News.
