FDA – Johnson & Johnson’s single shot vaccine meets requirements for emergency use

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FDA - Johnson & Johnson's single shot vaccine meets requirements for emergency use

FDA – Johnson & Johnson’s single shot vaccine meets requirements for emergency use

In an analysis released Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration said the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine has met the requirements for emergency use authorisation.

The efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against moderate to severe/critical Covid-19 across all geographic areas was 66.9% at least 14 days after the single dose vaccination and 66.1% at least 28 days after vaccination, a new analysis meant to brief the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee said.

The vaccine also showed 86 percent efficacy against severe forms of Covid-19 in the United States, and 82 percent against severe disease in South Africa. That means that a vaccinated person has a far lower risk of being hospitalized or dying from Covid-19.

Officials at Johnson & Johnson say that they will be able to provide 20 million US doses of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March, assuming it gets the greenlight from federal regulators.

The company reiterated that it will have capacity to provide 100 million vaccine doses to the US by the end of June. That supply will help government officials reach the goal of having enough injections to vaccinate most adult Americans later this year. On a global scale the company aims to produce 1 billion doses this year.

Currently available vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses spaced several weeks apart. Executives from both companies and two other vaccine makers will also testify at Tuesday’s hearing.

Pfizer’s vaccine was found to be 95% effective against preventing Covid-19, while Moderna’s was found to be about 94% effective.