Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine illustration
Given Ruvic | Reuters
An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously on Sunday to recommend the use of Johnson & Johnson’s One-shot Covid-19 vaccine for people 18 years of age or older, as the federal government prepares to send million doses this week.
Once the Director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, accepts the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the federal government can begin sending doses to locations across the country. ACIP met in an emergency session to review data on the vaccine, which this Saturday he became the third sniper to receive an emergency use permit from the Food and Drug Administration.
Walensky said on Friday that he would “wait to review” the ACIP recommendation and would be “ready to sign it”.
“We are on the verge of having another vaccine in our toolboxes, the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. Like many of you, I am excited about the news that another safe and effective vaccine option may arrive next week,” he said. she friday. “Having a safe and effective additional vaccine will help protect more people more quickly.”
J&J Vice President of Medical Affairs, Dr. Richard Nettles, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the company is prepared to dispatch nearly 4 million doses as soon as it receives emergency use authorization. He added that the company expects to be able to supply 20 million doses by the end of March.
The introduction of the J&J vaccine could be a boon for the vaccine supply in the USA. While the new vaccine showed signs of being less effective in preventing Covid-19 in clinical trials when compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the J&J injection was 100% effective in preventing deaths and hospitalizations caused by Covid-19 in studies clinical trials.
The level of protection of the J&J vaccine against Covid-19 in tests varied by region, according to FDA documents released on Wednesday. About a month after inoculation, the injection proved 72% effective in the United States, 61% in Latin America and 64% in South Africa, where variant B.1.351 is spreading rapidly.
Notably, the FDA review showed that the vaccine was significantly less effective in people 60 and older who also have comorbidities such as diabetes or heart disease. The agency noted, however, that the data was too sparse to draw conclusions from it.
In contrast, the Pfizer vaccine was found in clinical trials with 95% effectiveness in preventing Covid-19, while the Moderna vaccine was found to be around 94% effective. Infectious disease experts pointed out that the J&J figures cannot be used as a direct comparison with the other two vaccines because it is a single dose and the company’s test was carried out when there were more infections, as well as new, more contagious variants.
But federal health officials have pointed out that the J&J single-dose regimen comes with unique logistical advantages that can make it ideal for hard-to-reach populations.
The J&J vaccine “makes it operationally easier in many contexts,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, to the Journal of American Medical Association during a question and answer event on Friday . “I hope that many of the considerations that state health departments are having around these vaccines are more about the ease of use of the J&J vaccine and how it might be more appropriate for some populations.”
J&J said it plans to ship the vaccine, which contains five doses per bottle, from 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit. In comparison, the Pfizer vaccine typically needs to be stored in deep-frozen freezers that keep it between minus 112 and minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit, although the FDA recently said it can be stored in standard pharmacy freezer temperatures for up to two weeks. Moderna’s vaccine needs to be sent between 13 degrees below and 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace contributed to this report.