Less can be more when it comes to launching a coronavirus vaccine.
The Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine may have an advantage over Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – although it is still several weeks from being approved in the United States, Wall Street analysts told the Post.
That’s because single jabs are likely to be easier to distribute nationwide than their rivals’ two-dose regimes that are slowly going into the arms of Americans.
“They are not that late, considering the fact that they are shooting for a single dose vaccine, which will definitely be much more convenient,” CFRA Research analyst Sel Hardy told the Post. “They have clear advantages in terms of logistics.”
J&J expects to release data from its large-scale vaccine study in late January and ask the feds to release the vaccine for emergency use soon after. That would leave it about two months behind Pfizer and Moderna, which obtained emergency approvals in mid-December.
J&J is also studying a two-dose regimen, but only one dose generated an immune response in more than 90 percent of participants in an initial clinical trial.
This means that each dose that the New Jersey-based company produces can inoculate a person, potentially doubling its impact compared to Pfizer and Moderna jabs, according to Third Bridge’s Jeylan Mammadova.
“If I’m saying that I have the capacity to produce a billion doses … that’s a billion people you’re vaccinating” with a single vaccine, said Mammadova, the global team at the healthcare investment research firm. “If I make the same statement with Moderna and Pfizer, that is only half.”
There is another fundamental difference – the injection of J&J causes an immune response in the body by delivering a gene for coronavirus “peak” proteins via a common cold virus that cannot make the recipient sick. It is a different method from the so-called messenger RNA found in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
J&J’s technology already has a strong track record – it was used to develop the company’s Ebola vaccine that European Union regulators approved last July. This could help to reassure people who are skeptical about the new COVID-19 injections, according to analysts.
“Although they are late, some people may think, ‘OK, they are using a traditional vaccine platform,'” said Hardy. “There may also be a problem of trust, a problem of perception, I would say, that can play in your favor.”
Furthermore, the J&J vaccine is expected to have a longer shelf life than that of Moderna and does not require ultra-cold storage like that of Pfizer, which must be kept below 94 degrees Fahrenheit to be effective.
J&J estimates that its vaccine will remain stable for at least three months in normal refrigerator temperatures and for two years in a freezer at less than 4 degrees Fahrenheit. Moderna’s can last up to 30 days in the refrigerator and up to six months when frozen.
Despite these apparent advantages, analysts do not expect the vaccine to have a major impact on J&J’s financial results. The company said it plans to make the injection “nonprofit for emergency pandemic use” and has obtained about $ 454 million in funding for research and development from the United States government.
J&J will also have to contend with other single-dose COVID vaccines from companies like Merck, which is lagging behind in development.
“I don’t think that financially makes a difference to [J&J] even if it’s a fantastic victory, ”Sam Fazeli, senior pharmaceutical analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told The Post. “The question is whether this is something they will be able to monetize beyond the pandemic.”