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New clinical data suggests that Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical arm confirms that its COVID-19 vaccine candidate was able to stimulate an immune response that lasted just over two months, or 71 days, among 805 study participants .
Announced via a Press release and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the company said its vaccine, called Ad26.COV2.S, elicited an immune response against COVID-19 antibodies after a single dose.
Other approved COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two inoculations a few weeks apart. Receiving only one hit would result in lower immunity.
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Johnson & Johnson claims that a single injection of Ad26.COV2.S elicits strong neutralizing antibodies in over 90% of its clinical trial volunteers.
These neutralizing antibodies work to prevent viral proteins from binding to human cells. A two-dose regimen was less reactogenic, but elicited double the antibodies.
Upcoming Phase 3 clinical trials, the last step in vaccine testing, will confirm whether a second dose will provide additional efficacy or durability benefits, primarily in the elderly.
“Although all ongoing phase 3 studies of other Covid-19 vaccines have evaluated two-dose regimens, a single dose of Ad26.COV2.S elicited a strong humoral response in a majority of vaccinees, with the presence of S-binding and neutralizing antibodies in over 90% of participants, regardless of age group or dose of vaccine, ”the published report reads.
Five serious side effects were reported, including one participant temporarily hospitalized with fever. Other common side effects were migraines, myalgia, fatigue, and pain at the injection site.
While the US government struggles to allocate available vaccine doses to initial populations, a single-dose vaccine that is effective against COVID-19 exposure “has obvious logistical advantages over a two-dose vaccine,” especially during a pandemic, ”according to the study’s authors.
This may be due to the way the vaccine is made. CNN Notes that instead of using mRNA to communicate with human cells and arm them against COVID-19 pathogens, the Johnson & Johnson candidate presents a weakened version of the common cold called adenovirus 26 to elicit an immune response to help the body to recognize and fight COVID-19 particles.
Johnson & Johnson in particular recognized that the lack of minority groups characterized the representation of study participants.
Despite the promising results of the first trials, the New York Times written that the company is behind in production, leaving the federal government to wait for more than 60 million doses. The company might be able to catch up with production by March.
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