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Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine ‘ticks almost all the boxes’ on a list of what is needed in a coronavirus vaccine, said Dr Greg Poland, head of the Mayo vaccine research group on Friday Clinic.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is safe and effective, and has the advantage of being a single-dose vaccine that has no special storage requirements, Poland said at a meeting of vaccine advisers at the US Food and Drug Administration.
“We need a vaccine that can be mass produced quickly,” Poland said. “We would like to see a reasonable period of effectiveness and protection.
“The Janssen vaccine candidate checks almost all the boxes.”
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologics Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) is meeting to discuss the vaccine and will vote later Friday on whether to recommend the FDA’s emergency use clearance. The FDA almost always follows the committee’s recommendations.
“There are only three ways to control the pandemic,” Poland told the committee. “The first is a hard lockdown,” with universal masking and social distancing, he said. “Second, the virus mutates to be less transmissible,” he added – but noted that more transmissible variants are already emerging and spreading.
Third, the vaccination. “Vaccines are our main weapons to counter and control this threat,” Poland said.
He noted that the vaccine made by the Janssen division of Johnson & Johnson had been studied in several countries when the virus was spreading rapidly – and when new variants were circulating.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which, if approved, would be the third to be approved for the United States, offered 85% protection against serious illness and the need to be hospitalized in clinical trials advanced phase 3.
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